Revenge is the best Sin
by LikeAnEcho
Summary: It was hard to resist. Her sin was that tempting. Revenge was the one thing that outlasted a woman's all other emotions. Her sin is what made everyone else believe that she was behind the slaughters of the old Grand Master and dozens of Holy knights. Who's to say otherwise? The only ones who would know would be her fellow sins...and a stubborn princess who somehow saw good in them.
1. Chapter 1

_"When the battle is done, and you think that you have won- don't dance on my grave just yet. If you are the moon then I am the sun, I won't let you forget. In my own time I will take back what's mine, for you are not my friend. In the dark of the night and the shifting of the tides, I will come for you then. For a woman's desire for revenge outlasts all other emotions…"_

Aelfthryth, The Tiger Sin of Revenge. ( E-el-thrif-th)

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"Alright boys, I got your beers for you right here. Thanks for waiting." carefully setting the cluster of five mugs of ale down on the table, a pink haired woman with baby blue eyes playing waitress straightened and smiled lightly at the tipsy group of men she had been serving. "Thanks Alfie, you're a real doll you know that?" one of them slurred slightly with a bright smile as he and his friends took their individual mugs.

"Oh, well thank you for saying that." the pinkette blushed a little, turning towards the jingle of the door bell being hit. "Hey there, got room for a few more?" two men stood in the doorway of the crowded tavern. "Sure do!" Alfie assured, " just pick a spot and shove the guys aside, they'll make room for you." she said good naturedly, grabbing the five empty ale mugs from the table she had been serving and walking off.

"You gotta admit shes's one hard worker," the same man from before noted, " I can't believe she and that little guy working the bar are the only ones servers this whole place." hearing this, Alfie paused and looked over her shoulder. "Oh he's not a server, he's the owner." the woman corrected, continuing on her way knowing that she had successfully surpised the group of men. "Hey Mel! I need two more!" Alfie called, watching as he came from the back carrying a meat pie to a table. "Just a second, Alfie!" the blonde called back, setting the plate down for a group of three.

"Here you go, the meat pie that makes the Boar Hat famous." Meliodas smiled brightly, placing his hands on his hips. "Oh wow it looks great!" three males chorused together, each taking a spoon full of pie and shoving it in their mouths eagerly. "Three...two...one." Alfie counted right on time for the men to spit the food out in unison, coughing and hacking away.

"It's to be expected, The Boar Hat is really well known for our amazing booze but crappy food." Meliodas commented lightly. "I can't believe you haven't hired a chef yet." Alfie came up beside him. "Hm?" the blonde looked up at her confused. "What would I do that for when I have you?" he wondered. "Because I'm not actually in the kitchen, nor will I be. People are too picky when it comes to food" the woman reminded.

"H-Hey wait a minute!" one of the vicitms got the duo's attention. " You know your food is revolting yet you still serve it? Do you think it's funny to do that to people?!" Meliodas and Alfie blinked calmly at the riled up trio, "Well technically he keeps on doing it," she pointed to the blonde male next to her, though it did nothing to calm them from their increasing rage.

"You can't pin it just on him, you're involved too!" they all yelled. Narrowing her eyes on them, Alfie suddenly disappeared and had the burliest one out of the three pinned to the table with one hand on his head and twisting his arm to the breaking point with the other in a blink of an eye. " That's not a problem is it?" the pinkette growled down at him, his friends flinching and taking a couple steps back.

"She moved so fast!" one cried out in the now dead silent tavern. "Is it?!" Alfie asked again when she didn't get an answer, twisting the man's arm even further. "No!" her victim screamed, "No it's not!" he wailed in pain, leading the woman to release her hold on him with a huff. "That's what I thought...Hawk!" Alfie then called, "Come clean up the mess out here!" the pinkette instructed, referring to the meat pie that had gotten knocked to the ground. Strolling out from the back room, Hawk's round pink form appeared. "A mess?" the pig echoed dubiously.

"I would hardly call this a mess. What do you need me for?" he looked up at Meliodas and Alfie unamused. " If it's on the ground, then it's a mess that needs to be cleaned." Alfie iterated. "Or do we need to find a new captain for the Order of Scraps Disposal?" Hawk squealed in horror at the suggestion, whipping around and digging his snout into the disgarded meat pie with feavor. "No! No way ma'am, I'm on it! See? See?!" he cried as he ate, leaving the floor positively sparkling by the time he was finished.

Smirking, Alfie knelt down and patted Hawk's head lovingly, "Yes, you did a good job, Captain Hawks." she acknowledged. "Hey Alfie," Meliodas caught her attention, "I'm going to run into town to get some more food supplies." he told her. "Now? We're filled to the brim here!" Hawk protested whole heartedly for the woman. "Yeah, and everyone's content. I won't be long." the blonde promised. " Do you want anything while I'm out?" Meliodas asked but Alfie shook her head. "No, I'm fine." the pinkette rose to her original height. " Good, see you soon then." the short blonde bid with a wave over his shoulder before disappearing out the door.

"Well Captain Hawk, it looks like it's just you and me to hold this ravel down. Do you accept this mission?" Alfie said in a playfully stern way. "Yes, ma'am!" Hawk saluted with one of his floppy long ears, following his friend behind the bar to help in any way he could. The peace in the tavern was kept for a good handful of minutes until some poor soul came barging in yelling about seeing the Wandering Rust Knight on his way here.

"The Wandering Rust Knight?"

"I've been hearing rumors about that too."

"That's just a made up story along with all the others!"

Alfie rolled her eyes at the tavern patrons conversing amongst one another and focused on refilling mugs of beer here and there. "Made to scare children into behaving. If you don't do what I tell you then one of the Eight Deadly Sins will come for you in blood rusted armor." another laughed drunkenly. "Say, Archie...who are the Eight deadly sins?" a younger man asked from his seat at the bar, turning to some of the men seated at a table closest to him. "You mean you don't know, Ollie?" the brunette haired man asked, sobering up a bit.

"Their wanted posters are hanging up all over, even in this tavern over there." he motioned to the wall where eight posters were hung on the bulletin board, each with a name written in bold under the portraits.

"It was about ten years ago where dozens of holy knights were killed so fast that they couldn't even defend themselves properly. The sins were responsible for it, and from what I hear - they're behind the murder of the holy knight's grand master from back then too. Them being Diane- The Serpent's Sin of Envy, Ban - The Fox's Sin of Greed, King- The Grizzly's Sin of Sloth, Gowther- The Goat's Sin of Lust, Merlin- The Boar's Sin of Gluttony, Escanor- The Lion's Sin of Pride, and then the leader of them all was their Captain, Meliodas - The Dragon's Sin of Wrath." Archie recited.

The man dubbed Ollie was silent for a breif moment before he realized something, "Hey, you're missing one. You only named seven. Who's the last one? I can't see from here." Ollie portrayed, the final wanted poster was blocked by another patron's head. " Meliodas may have led them but there are rumors suggesting that he took orders from someone else." Archie mused.

" Aelfthryth ( **A/N: E-el-thrif-th** ), The Tiger's Sin of Revenge. It's said that the Holy Knights and the former Grand Master wronged her greatly and Aelfthryth led the attack against them all. They say that the only sin to match her power is Meliodas. It's highly possible that either Meliodas was just a face to the public as captain or that Aelfthryth was second to him and they co-led the sins together. What ever countries or villages that were brought down by the sins, you can bet that one or the other was mainly responsible for the most damage." Archie finished.

"And to think that they're still alive roaming around somewhere." Ollie shivered. "Don't worry, Ollie." his friend assured, "Even if they did show up, the Holy Knights would protects us." Archie laughed, along with a few others. However their laughter was brought to a hault when loud footsteps from outside suddenly sounded. "Does anyone else smell rust?" Hawk asked aloud, taking a few sniffs of the air. "Am I supposed to?" Alfie asked curiously, sniffing the air for herself. The door creaked open a moment later, revealing a large armored creature. "The Eight...deadly...sins…" came a distorted voice as it slowly marched in.

"IT'S HERE!" every customer screamed in fright before rushing out of the tavern, fleeing for their lives. There were even some who jumped out the window. Alfie's brows raised high into her hairline at the mess that was left in their wake, she didn't think Hawk would eat broken glass and dropped beer cups. "Meliodas is going to be pissed." she looked about the now empty bar.

"We were making a good haul of cash too." the woman sighed disappointedly before hopping the counter and standing before the mysterious arrival. "Can I help you, stranger?" Alfie looked up at the imposing figure unimpressed. However instead of getting an answer, Alfie watched as the creature suddenly collapsed onto its back- knocking the helmet clean off of its' shoulders.

Peering around its large frame, it was revealed that the person inside the armor was a light green haired girl. An unconscious one at that. "Well, what do you know…" Alfie trailed off. "It's a girl."Hawk realized for himself, "Is she really one of the sins?" he asked. Alfie then knocked a knuckle into the side of the pig's head. "Don't insult them like that, Hawk." she scolded over the pig's wails of apparent piggy cruelty. " You'll end up on a dinner plate if they catch you saying something like that again." Hawk's wails soon turned into a screech of fright at the thought.

Moving forward, Alfie hauled the strange girl over her shoulder and made for the stairs - armor and all. "What are you doing Alfie?" Hawk asked. "Going to go lay her down upstairs of course." the pinkette replied climbing the stairs. Kicking open the door to Meliodas' room since it was closest to the stair case, the woman placed the girl on the bed. Piece by piece Alfie worked on removing the armor, tossing the parts off to the side carelessly.

"You've traveled alot Alfie. Do you recognize her?" Hawk asked once she was finally done. "Not at all." the woman sighed, "Doesn't matter anyways. Let's go get down stairs cleaned up before Meliodas comes back." Alfie headed for the door, using the handrail to steady her as she and Hawk descended back onto the main floor. "We should track every single one of those guys down and make them come clean up theirselves." Hawk grumbled, grabbing a few cups off the ground with his teeth and placing them on the bar counter. "Not a half bad idea honestly," Alfie murmured as she righted fallen chairs and stools.

Despite the mutal agreement on what they should do, Alfie and Hawks cleaned up the bar area by theirselves within the hour or so. The duo had been celebrating a job well done with a beer and meat pie when a gentle voice suddenly called out. "Um excuse me." the blue eyed woman's eyes widened at the new voice and turned to look over her shoulder to find the source.

It was the girl they had put to rest up stairs. "Hey, what's up?" Alfie greeted casually. " I um" she blushed lightly, "I was just wondering where I was and what happened…" she trailed off unsurely. "The Boar Hat. You wandered in, scared off our customers and then fainted." Alfie turned in her chair to face her fellow woman. The green haired female looked horrified at the mere thought of doing such a thing.

"I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to chase away your customers, I promise!" she cried. "Ah don't worry about it." Hawk jumped into the conversation. "You saved us the trouble of having to kick everyone out later anyways." he shrugged. The new comer blinked twice before launching herself with a squeal at Hawk, "Oh you're so cute, I've never seen a talking piggy like yourself before!" she hugged the animal and pet him all over.

"I asked my dad a long time ago to get me a pig just like this but I never got one." she confessed. Alfie snorted, "If you like him so much then you can keep him." she joked dryly sipping at her beer, smirking at the outraged cry that followed from the pig himself.

"I'll have you know a pig of my caliber isn't so easily replaced!" Hawk protested angrily. "So you got a name, doll face?" Alfie quirked a brow as she eyed the wall of alcohol blankly, ignoring her animal friend. "Oh!" the girl exclaimed, realizing her rudeness. " I'm so sorry, my name is Elizabeth." she introduced herself . "Alfie." the pinkette said plainly, "The pig is Hawk." she pointed to the animal himself. "Hi there! It's nice to meet you." Hawk chirped, "Are you hungry Elizabeth? You're awful thin you know." he pointed out.

"Oh no I couldn't possibly impose!" Elizabeth fretted, only to be bullied into a chair by Hawk. "Nonsense, you're our guest. It's our duty to serve our guests after all." the pig explained. "Glad you'll be cooking for her then." Alfie commented, yelping when her stool was suddenly knocked out from under her. "YOU'RE THE ONE WITH THUMBS YOU DO IT!" Hawk yelled in her ear.

"Roasted pig will do just fine then, wouldn't you agree?!" Alfie yelled right back, causing Hawk to gasp in fright and take off with the pink haired woman on his tail. "That's not funny!" Hawk wailed. "I never said I was joking!" sliding to a halt, Alfie took her beer bottle and chucked it at the pig's head. Elizabeth winced a the direct contact it made and fidgeted in her seat. "It's really alright, I don't want to be a bother." she tried.

Sighing in defeat, Alfie waved off the comment. "No I suppose Hawk has a point, you are a guest." she then made for the kitchen and started grabbing a few ingredients left and right half heartedly to make a sandwhich and get some chips for the poor girl. After a few minutes, Alfie returned back out into the bar area with a plate in hand and placed the simple meal before Elizabeth.

"It's not much, but I really don't like cooking for people. They're too picky." Alfie said bluntly. "No, no. This is perfect thank you." Elizabeth assured, picking up the sandwich and biting into it. "How is it? Alfie is no cook but usually her food is better than the boss's on the rare occasion when she does throw something together." Hawk asked.

"It's delicious. Thank you." Hawk and Alfie were surprised when a tear suddenly ran down her face. "This is the first real kindness I've been shown since I've been on the road." Elizabeth admitted. " Can't exactly say I'm surprised," Alfie used a napkin to wipe away the tear, " you walking around in the armor was bound to get you some unsavory attention from people….What were you doing walking around in it anyways?" she asked. "I'm on a quest to find the eight deadly sins." Elizabeth revealed. "Huh? Why would you do that? No even knows if they're alive or not. To top it off they're villians too" Hawk pointed out.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by someone pounding on the front door. "Open up!" a man shouted from outside, " The villagers told us who's in there! We are the Order of the Beard of the Mountain Cat serving under the holy knights stationed at the foot of the mountain. Wandering Rust Knight, member of the deadly sins - come out and do so peacefully!" he demanded.

Alfie's brows raised at this, "See? What did I tell ya? Unsavory attention" she quipped, moving out from behind the bar and moved towards the door. "There's a back door that leads to the forest, use that to get away." Alfie began to explain without looking backwards. "All you have to do is keep going straight and you'll reach a cliff, wait there and we'll come get you once these guys are dealt with. Understand?" Elizabeth didn't answer for a moment, stunned to hear the words coming from her fellow woman.

She couldn't believe that these strangers were helping her. "Elizabeth what are you doing? Get going!" Hawk pushed the green haired girl off the stool and onto her feet. "R-Right!" she stuttered and hurried to the backdoor. Once she was sure Elizabeth made it out the door, Alfie opened the front door right in time to see a group of five knights standing there - the leader with a raised fist making to pound on the door once again. "I don't know who you are but I know you aren't paying any bills around here to be pounding on my door like this. Consider yourself lucky my boss isn't here or he would have your butts mounted on the wall." Alfie bluffed.

The soldiers all recoiled slightly before their leader recovered first, "Enough playing around, we know you have the Rust Knight in there, send him out!" he demanded. Alfie looked to him unimpressed, "There's no such thing in this tavern." she denied. "Don't give us that crap!" one of his lackies cried, "We've had several reports-"

"Reports from men that have been drinking here all day?" Alfie interuppted in a dull tone, poking a hole in their logic. Flinching at this the men looked amongst each other uncertainly, "If you're having doubts." the pinkette played on their indecisiveness, "Then go ahead and search for the knight yourself." she stepped aside to allow them into the tavern.

None of them moved, none sure what to do. Alfie was sure they were about to leave in defeat until one of them suddenly tensed as he caught something out of the corner of his eye. "Captain, look! A girl just ran out from the back of the bar!" he cried, causing Alfie to sigh in frustration. "Damn it Elizabeth." she cursed as the knights ran after her with fervor.

"Now what?" Hawk popped up beside Alfie. " Now," the woman sighed. "You go chase them down." she said simply. " What?!" Hawk exclaimed incredulously. "And if you do, a certain captain of scraps disposal will have extras to eat tonight." Alfie sang, smirking when the pig was gone in a flash in order to earn his reward. "Meliodas sure has been gone awhile…" Alfie then noted offhandedly, looking out over the hill and down at the town where the blonde apparently went for more supplies.

"Hope he didn't get lost." she commented lightly before running in the same direction every one else had. Leaping tree to tree at incredible speeds, it didn't take long for Alfie to spot Elizabeth's green head up ahead. From the side she could see Hawk bowling over the knights one by one with fervor until it was just the captain left. Disappearing in the blink of an eye, Alfie appeared further ahead in Elizabeth's path of travel and snatched the woman off to the side right before she could run past - covering her mouth to hide the scream she tried to let out.

"Easy, Elizabeth." Alfie murmured quietly, watching as the Captain of the knights ran past oblivious to the duo and skidded to a halt just before the edge of the cliff. "Where'd the girl go?" Alfie heard him ask before Hawk appeared out of no where and rammed him straight off the edge of the cliff with no remorse. "Sorry guy, but I have a lot of food on the line tonight." Hawk said as Elizabeth and Alfie emerged from the tree line.

"Not bad, Hawk." Alfie acknowledged, Elizabeth creeping closer to the edge of the cliff to overlook the land. "Hey, doll face." Alfie called out to Elizabeth, "What makes you want to find the sins anyways?" she asked. "I need to find them, so I can ask if they can stop the holy knights." Elizabeth told her. "Why would you want to do that? They're knights of the Kingsmen, they protect Liones!" Hawk proclaimed.

" But what if they were the ones trying to throw our nation into a war?" Elizabeth's brow furrowed, "What if they were the ones who had the entire royal family arrested and just told people that the king was laid up sick in bed?...The holy knights are determined to throw Liones into war and I don't know why, but they've started drafting men from all over and soon they'll even spread their influence all the way out here." she frowned sadly.

"Man that sucks." Alfie said lightly, only to be nudged by Hawk. "Could you at least try and have a little more sympathy?" he asked with an annoyed look. " Sooo I still don't get how this involves the sins." the woman kicked Hawk in retribution. "If the Holy Knights are to be stopped, then the sins are the only ones who can do it!" Elizabeth said with no room for argument, " I know what the rumors say - that they're probably dead after being forced the scatter when the Holy Knights launched a full force attack on them but I don't believe it. They wouldn't just die like that! I would sooner stand by their side than by the sides of those corrupt knights!" she exclaimed passionately.

No sonner did she say that, Alfie sensed something behind her and grabbed Elizabeth and Hawk and darted away right on time to avoid a blast aimed at them. "Oops," Alfie heard a masculine voice said mockingly a moment later. Peaking out from behind the tree they hid behind, the pink haired woman watched as the ground where they used to be standing crumbled down the cliff side to the ground below.

It had been a towering knight in red armor that had been responsible for the attack. "I forgot to check to make sure they were the people in the report. Oh well." the grey haired man shrugged. "In conclusion there are two people of unknown origin dead. Does that sound about right?" he looked back at his companions who turned out to be the men Hawk had knocked out from earlier.

"Bastard." Alfie glared murderously at the hulk of a knight. The attempt on their lives was not taken lightly by the pink haired woman. "But sir! Allioni was still down there!" one of the lesser knights protested. "Well then just change it to three people of unknown origins dead." the armored knight corrected. "Now that's too far, Sir Twiggo, you can't do that!" another underling protested.

"Then I'll change the report to seven." Twiggo glared at his companions and closed in on them menacingly. "Hey Alfie." Unlike Elizabeth and Hawk, the pink haired woman remained calm when Meliodas suddenly appeared next to her with Allioni over his shoulder. "Hey Mel," she answered a bit distractedly, keeping an eye on the knights.

"Do me a favor and keep an eye on doll face will ya?" she requested before launching out of her hiding spot without an answer. Right as Twiggo placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, Alfie was appeared right before his eyes and delivered a powerful kick to his face that sent the knight flying backwards.

"What?"

"It's her from the bar earlier!"

Alfie said nothing in responce to the weaker knights exclamations, keeping her eyes locked onto Twiggo who was working on getting to his feet. " Such insolence!" he roared, "I'll teach you to attack me!" the knight unsheated his sword, and swung it - unleashing an energy wave so powerful that it cut all the forest trees clean in half. "Temper, temper...and they say I have a bad one " Alfie tsked having successfully dodged the attack, greeting Twiggo's widened eyes with calm ones.

"H-How did she dodge sir Twiggo's attack so easily?" a knight asked with a slight stutter. "She dodged his earlier one too, did you see that?" another asked. "We have to get out of here." the order knights flinched when their friend Allioni suddenly appeared beside them. "Allioni!" they exclaimed in unison.

Meliodas looked at his shoulder where the man was supposed to be and seen that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him after all. "Whoops...guess I let him get away huh?" he said perplexed. "How did you not notice that until now!" Hawk yelled, stamping a hoof. "Sorry." the blonde shrugged casually.

"We have to get out of here, now!" Allioni's shout drew their attention. "What are you talking about Allioni, sir Twiggo can handle her no problem. Granted, she's quick on her feet and has a mean kick but that's nothing." one of his companions dismissed. Allioni's eyes diolated at this, grabbing the man by the collar of his shirt. "You don't get it do you?!" he yelled.

"We have to get out of here, and do it now! He's already attacked her - there's no saving him! There may even be no saving this country!" Allioni yelled, eyes laced with fear. "Don't tell me you guys didn't see it just now….THE MARK ON HER NECK!" he shouted, voice cracking from strain. "She has to be it, there's no mistaking it!" together the knights looked to where Alfie stood before Twiggo with a calm façade, the wind blowing back her long pink locks and revealing the dark red mark of a tiger on her neck.

"It's the Tiger Sin of Revenge, Aelfthryth!" Allioni cried in terror. From her spot next to Meliodas, Elizabeth's eyes widened greatly. "S-she's the...tiger sin?" the green haired woman stuttered in disbelief. " Sure is." Meliodas grinned from beside her, "Alfie's the real deal." he chuckled. "Wait a minute, now I remember your face!" Twiggo then realized after staring at the woman for a long moment, "And I can't believe you have the audacity to still exist!" he raged, raising and sword and bringing it straight down with intentions on slicing the woman clean in half.

However, with one brought up arm - Alfie stopped the attack clean in its tracks, grasping the blade between her two fingers. Twisting her fingers, Alfie snapped the blade in two without much care in the world. "Correct me if I'm wrong but you've come after my life three times just now - yes?" she quirked a brow. "In all fairness I am in my rights to get revenge, wouldn't you think?" Alfie's fingers twitched in anticipation, "Because I would think that very much," her lips curled into a wicked smile.

"Uh-oh." Meliodas pursed his lips before throwing Elizabeth over one shoulder in one smooth move - giving her rear end a handful of strokes- and shoving Hawk under his other arm before taking off back towards his tavern. "But wait! We can't leave Lady Alfie!" Elizabeth cried with a blush. "Trust me. You are not going to want to be around Alfie right about now." Meliodas chuckled nervously.

"Anyways, what's your name? I'm Meliodas." the blonde smiled over her shoulder. "Meliodas?" Elizabeth repeated with a blink, a small gasp escaping past her lips a moment later. "Wait a minute! If Alfie is a sin...then does that mean you're one too?!" Elizabeth assumed. "Sure am." Meliodas gave a closed eye grin, "Meliodas the Dragon Sin of Wrath." he introduced himself. "I heard some of your conversation before with Alfie, how you were ready to stand side by side with the Eight deadly sins but I missed the reason why that was." the blonde admitted.

"The holy knights have totally become corrupt! Bonkers!" Hawk exclaimed before Elizabeth could explain. "What?" Meliodas' brow raised. "They've locked up the royal family and are lying to the entire kingdom! They're gonna send the entire country into a war we have no business being in!" the pig continued. "Is that true?" Meliodas pointed the question to Elizabeth.

"Well in simple terms, yes it is." the green haired girl nodded her head. "And you think we're enough to stop the holy knights…" Meliodas trailed off under his breath, leaving the rest of the journey in silence. Once he had arrived back at the tavern, the sin dropped Hawk carelessly in contrast to how he carefully set Elizabeth down. "I know they are." Elizabeth said with conviction as they entered the tavern, bringing the conversation back into play. "You guys are the best knights this country has ever pushed out, there is no one better!" there was no changing her mind no matter what anyone said, apparently.

"Well Elizabeth, I guess this means that you're off to a good start. You've met two out of eight of the sins already." Meliodas pointed out. "As far as the six others go, I have some business to discuss with them. So I've been looking for them myself. Alfie does pretty good at attracting customers and getting information out of them but she has a tendency to get a bit violent from time to time." he admitted. "But if you were to join us, you'd be able to balance that out, maybe even pull in even more customers." Meliodas suggested.

Elizabeth sat down on her stool she occupied earlier, piecing together what the blonde boy was saying. "Pull in more customers?" she repeated lost. "Well do you have a better idea on how to find the others?" Meliodas hopped the bar counter and grabbed a beer, " You are coming with us, aren't you?" he rose a brow. "Y-You mean you'll help me?" Elizabeth couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Well of course I will, why wouldn't I?" Meliodas wondered, surprised when the green haired girl's eye watered suddenly before tears rolled down her cheek. "You...you can't believe how happy that makes me." she sniffled lightly, wiping away her tears. " Well when you tell me what you just said, it doesn't exactly leave me with many options does it?" Meliodas said good naturedly, "Now let's talk about your uniform." he grinned toothily. "U-Uniform?" Elizabeth repeated innocently.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

Cleaning of smidgeon of blood off her face, Alfie held a small smirk on her lips. "Now that he's out of the way." she turned to the knight dubbed Allioni and his companions, "Why don't you tell me what you guys are really doing snooping around here? I know you aren't just looking for the eight deadly sins, there has to be more than that. There always is." The men flinched but stayed tight lipped, "Oh? Well that won't do at all." Alfie frowned at their silence taking a step forward.

"The capitol issued a decree to bring Princess Elizabeth back home alive and unharmed!" one blurted before slapping his hands over his mouth. "Princess Elizabeth?" Alfie repeated, "Hold on, not the Elizabeth that was just here a few minutes ago." she threw a thumb over her shoulder to point in the direction Meliodas ran off with her. "So she's a princess, huh? That certainly does make things interesting doesn't it." Alfie said to herself thoughtfully, pinching her chin lightly between her thumb and pointer finger.

"Well alright, thanks for the info guys." the woman smiled kindly, throwing a peace sign over her shoulder and walking towards the ruined forest. "Princess Elizabeth huh? The third princess of Liones if I remember correctly." Alfie said to herself, flashing out of sight of the knights and reappearing on the porch of the tavern just in time for Momma Hawk to unearth herself from the ground down below. Opening the door to the tavern, she spotted Meliodas in the process of lifting up the folds of Elizabeth's skirt and peeking at her panty clad behind.

"MELIODAS!" Alfie snapped, causing Elizabeth to shreik and jump out of the blonde's reach with a heavy red blush while the blonde man himself merely blinked innocently at his pink haired friend and straightened. "Hey Alfie, what's up?" he waved a hand. Alfie huffed and rolled her eyes, stomping right past him without a word. "Hm? Alfie? Is there something wrong?" Meliodas followed after her to the bar.

"You got something to tell us, doll face?" Alfie instead turned to Elizabeth expectantly. "What do you mean?" her fellow blue eyed woman asked. "I found out something pretty interesting from those knights just a few moments ago." the pinkette reached over the bar top and pulled out a glass followed by a bottle of scotch.

"Would you like a drink...princess?" Alfie looked to Elizabeth boredly. "Princess?!" Hawk appeared out of no where with a squeal. "Princess?" Meliodas said a lot more calmer than the pig. "Oh...that." Elizabeth looked down sadly. "Yeah, that." Alfie sipped her drink. "Princess Elizabeth, third princess of Liones. You would think you might of mentioned that." she chided.

"I'm sorry." the princess whimpered. Alfie stared at her for a moment before waving it off with a smile, "If I had known you were a princess I would of fed you more than a sandwich and some chips." she chuckled. "You made her a sandwich and chips? Can you make me one too?" Meliodas asked. "No." Alfie said simply, causing Meliodas to whine in disappointment.

"Where are we headed, Hawk?" she turned to the pig. "Vanya village." he answered. "So why did that require Elizabeth to change into such a skimpy outfit? We have more decent clothes." Alfie noted. "Don't ask me, Meliodas put her in that outfit and said she was going to start waitressing." Hawk informed. A vein twitched in Alfie's forehead at this.

"Elizabeth, there are proper clothes upstairs in my room if you want to change." she told her new friend. "N-no it's okay really! I don't mind the outfit." Elizabeth assured. Alfie let out an unconvinced noise from the back of her throat but dropped the issue. "You know I could of answered that for you if you had asked." Meliodas pointed out, only to be snuffed with silence.

Hawk looked to Meliodas and noticed his stare was not waivering from Alfie, neither was the tension between the two. "Come on Elizabeth, let me get you set up in the spare room we have." he invited. "Oh okay," Elizabeth nodded, "But before that, there was a question I wanted to ask of you Sir Meliodas and Lady Alfie." she revealed. "What is it?" Meliodas asked.

"The eight deadly sins...they say you guys are truly wicked - made from the stuff of the darkest nightmares. Your crimes are supposed to be just as bad too, but to be honest I don't see it." Elizabeth frowned. "If you were truly wicked then you wouldn't be agreeing to helping me...especially you Alfie- they say that you're the worst of them all but you wouldn't have even taken me in if that was true...right? I mean what crime could you all have possibly of committed to deserve these accusations?" she inquired.

"Well I don't know if this is what you're looking for but Meliodas traveled through the kingdom ten years ago stealing all the panties he could find." Alfie shrugged. "That wasn't my crime." the blonde dismissed. "You're right, sorry. I mean his crime was stalking a thousand girls and groping their boobs." she snorted. "Pretty girls. That's the important part." Meliodas grinned. "Are you two serious?!" Elizabeth cried.

"No, not really."

The green haired princess deadpanned and opened her mouth to insist on a reason but was distracted by Hawk again. "Come on Elizabeth! We have a bit of ways to go yet, you can ask them later. Let's get you to your room" the pig insisted, nudging the girl away and succeeding this time in getting the princess to head for the stairs. "Sooo are you going to tell me why you've gotten your revenge on me with the cold shoulder or not?" Meliodas stood next to her once the girl and pig disappeared. "The cold shoulder hardly classifies as revenge." Alfie mused dryly. "Aelfryth." Meliodas looked at her pointedly.

"...She's a princess Meliodas," Alfie sighed heavily, " hardly the one to set your sights on or to get her to fall for you." she raised her cup to her lips and drank. "Who said either is happening?" the blonde returned. "I know you Mel, you don't put your hands on anyone who you don't see yourself with. In one way or another." Alfie proclaimed. "That is-!" Meliodas faltered when his long time friend turned and looked at him expectantly, "Fairly true." he finished weakly. "Which is why you need to stop now before it goes anywhere." the pinkette warned.

"Alfie." Meliodas laughed, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. "I don't even know the girl." he rested his head on her back, his thumbs snaking under her shirt and gently rubbing the skin of her waist. Alfie deadpanned at this, trying to fight off the blush on her cheeks. "Who said anything about getting into a relationship with her?" he asked, the vibrations from his voice rattled her frame deeply - a shiver worked its way down the spine of her back involuntarily.

"You don't need to know someone to sleep with them." the woman shook her head. "No?" Meliodas hummed. "Either relationship - a genuine one or just physical won't end well. That's all I'm saying. Do with it as you want but don't come crying to me to fix your mess when it comes back to bite you" Alfie warned. "You worry too much." Meliodas waved off her concern, he tightened his hold. "In fact you always worry too much when it comes to things like this….are you jealous?" he grinned into her back.

"Hardly" Alfie placed her hands on top of his and freeing herself from his grasp and slid off the stool in one smooth move. "I have one love, Meliodas, and her name is revenge." the woman said simply. "I would beg to differ." the sin captain boldly placed his hand on her butt and gave a squeeze. "Hey!" the woman squeaked with a heavy blush, jumping out of his hold. "There's no need to be jealous Alfie," Meliodas grinned coyly, "If you have something you want to say then just say it."

The female sin's cheeks burned at the implication as her hands protectively covered her backside. "I told you, I'm not jealous and there's nothing to say!" her brow twitched,"I'm only watching out for you. I don't want to see you hurt, or for you to hurt anyone." she insisted. Though his smile never waivered, Meliodas sobered. "Yeah, you always were good at that weren't you? Making sure none of us got hurt and that nothing ever happened to us…" he trailed off.

"Yeah I've done a real swell job at that." Alfie rolled her eyes, hands dropping back to her sides. "And if something did happen." Meliodas continued, "You always made sure to get revenge, one way or another. It was always you" he finished. "What are you trying to say?" Alfie asked. " I'm saying, Alfie, that it's okay to let someone else taking the lead every now and again. It doesn't always have to be you." Meliodas conveyed.

" You've been doing it for a long time and at least some of it has to have built up by now. It can't be easy living with what you've done in retaliation. If you ever need a break, all you gotta do is say so. Okay?" For a long moment, neither said anything further, blue eyes staring into green unwavering.

"..."

"...Yeah, okay." Alfie said softly with a small nod. "Good." Meliodas smiled, patting her arm good naturedly. "Now let's go see if Elizabeth is all settled in." he placed his hands behind his head and made for the staircase. "Sounds good to me." Alfie followed after, smiling in thanks when her friend motioned for her to climb the stairs before him. Raising one leg onto a stair, Alfie suddenly froze. It was unusually breezy underneath her skirt. "What's wrong Al'?" Meliodas asked innocently.

"GIVE ME BACK MY UNDERWEAR YOU PERVERT!"

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

A/N: My first attempt at this kind of story, I only just started to watch Seven deadly sins and I'm in love with it already. Leave a review and let me know how I'm doing.


	2. Chapter 2

"What the heck happened to all the water?"

Together, the occupants of the Boar Hat made it to Vanya village but when they had been crossing the bridge to get into the small town - they noticed the stream under the bridge was all dried up. "The gruit is dead too." Meliodas noticed. "What are we going to do, Meliodas?" Alfie straightened from her hunched over posture. "With the water dried up, I doubt they'll have any liqour here." she frowned.

"We were here to buy more alcohol?" Elizabeth asked confused. "Amongst other things." Alfie answered. "Can't we just buy it from another village?" she tried. "We could." Meliodas nodded, "But Vanya has the best stuff in all of the land. It's special, people come from all over to try it" he explained. "The only thing left to do is to go ask the townspeople what's happened here." the blonde shoved his hands into his pockets and led his small party over to the town.

The closer they got, the more people that came into sight and congregated around something in the town square. "Hey guys!" Meliodas greeted the closest man to them upon arrival, "What's going on? What are we looking at?" he asked. Even Alfie and Elizabeth's taller heights couldn't see past the taller men of the village. "A holy knight came to the village and jabbed his sword into the ground, now we're trying to get it out." the villager answered.

"Why'd he do that?" Meliodas asked. "Apparently he took offence when our ale did not live up to his expectations, so he sealed our water away." the stranger informed. "What a prick." Alfie's nose scrunched in distaste, "But you do know that sword won't come out unless another holy knights pulls it out, right?" she scratched her cheek with a finger."WHAT?!" the crowd roared together, having surprisingly heard what the woman said.

"Well yeah, you need mana to fight mana...and you guys don't have any from what I can tell." Alfie said hesitantly. "So then we're doomed then. Our village is done for." an elderly villager looked down in defeat. "Psh, don't listen to her, Chief. What would she know?" a small child appeared, strolling forward confidently. "Mead?" the elder said confused.

"If my friends of the eight deadly sins were here, that sword would be gone already." he boasted. "Do you guys really know that little boy?" Elizabeth whispered to the two sins. "No, I have no idea who he is." they chorused, equally disturbed by the kid claiming to know them. "That's enough out of you, Mead!" a woman snapped heatedly.

"It's bad enough we're in this situation as it is now, if you keep talking like that you'll only make it worse for all of us!"

"Are you trying to make the holy knight even angrier at us?!"

"Your lies and tricks are what got us in this mess in the first place!"

"You're such a jerk!"

A little girl stepped forward and chucked a rock at Mead but her aim was so off it nailed Meliodas straight in the face instead. "HA!" Alfie began to laugh despite the situation, her entire frame shaking from the humor. Her reaction was a complete one-eighty from Elizabeth's horrified one. "Wow... I hate you guys!" Mead yelled at the crowd whole heartedly and would of been pelted with rocks had Alfie not stepped in and blocked every single one as she continued to laugh at the blonde's misfortune.

Meliodas took the opportunity to take the boy by his shoulders and began running off to find somewhere to hide temporarily, Mead screaming how much he hated the crowd all the while. "Enough, all of you!" the village chief from before yelled, ceasing the rock throws. "Man, we sure picked a good time to come here huh?" Hawk commented sarcastically. "I don't know, I think this is a great time to be here." Alfie chuckled, dropping the last rock that had flown into her hand. "You know deep down he's a good kid." the elderly man mentioned.

"He likes to stir up trouble and pull pranks and though he doesn't mean any harm, Mead more often than not takes things too far." he frowned. "So he's the one who ticked off the holy knight?" Alfie guessed. "Yes." the chief nodded, " He placed a bug in the knight's drink after he expressed his displeasure." he told. "Man, maybe I should take some notes from this kid when people complain about the food." Alfie pondered.

"Don't even think of it!" Hawk yelled, "I'm not eating any scraps with bugs in it!" he protested. "But you're a pig…" the pinkette trailed off. "It doesn't mean I don't have standards!" Hawk exclaimed. "Hey, Listen up!" a commanding voice called attention to the villagers.

Peaking through the gaps of the crowd, Alfie and Elizabeth were able to spot two knights standing by the sword. "If this sword isn't out of the ground by sundown then your product taxes will go up ten times over!" the other exclaimed. "But that's not fair! With our water gone we can't even brew a bottle of ale, let alone ten times that!" a man cried.

"Not our problem! It serves you right for disrespecting a holy knight and claiming to be associates with the eight deadly sins!" the taller of the two said. "Man, word gets around fast. These knights just pop up out of no where when the sins are mentioned." Alfie scratched the back of her head. "That's what you're worried about?!" Hawk asked incredulously.

"Huh? Mead, what are you doing?" a woman cried, drawing their attention. "Well he sure bounced back fast." the pinkette noted, watching as the little boy put both of his hands on the hilt of the sword and attempted to pull it out uselessly as the two knights laughed at him pointedly. "This is kind of sad to watch actually." Alfie frowned, stepping forward and moving through the crowd with ease.

"Wait, Lady Alfie!" Elizabeth cried out in worry. "Hey Elizabeth." Meliodas' voice startled the princess. He had two mugs of Vanya ale in his hands he had gotten from his tavern and handed one to her, "What's going on? Alfie's gonna pull out the sword?" Meliodas guessed before he drank. "I-I'm not sure." Elizabeth admitted, sipping at the drink he had been kind enough to get her. "So, did you guys find out that it was Mead who made the holy knight angry?" Meliodas asked and Elizabeth nodded.

"Yeah, the village chief just told us." Hawk agreed. " He tell you about his background too? How the village raised him after his parents died from the epidemic that broke out here?" the blonde quirked a brow. " What? That's horrible!" Elizabeth gasped. "Yeah, after they passed the villagers took turns raising him." Meliodas nodded his head, "Mead was just getting revenge on the holy knight for treating these people so poorly." he explained.

"Hey, Mead!" Alfie called, breaking through the crowd and walking up to the boy. "Tap out, bud" the woman smirked down at his stunned form, wrapping her hand around the hilt of the sword after he relinquished his hold on it.

"You and I are going to have to talk revenge tactics sometime, I like your style." Alfie had been slowly lifting the sword from the ground as she said this. The people of Vanya looked on with slacked jaws and wide eyes, " It's sloppy but with some practice and tips - you'll get better." she smiled, giving a sharp jerk and raised the blade from the earth completely.

"This is a nice blade." Alfie inspected the sword closer, "I think I'll keep it as a parting gift from the good holy knight who left it here. What do you say? Sounds pretty fair doesn't it?" her eyes slid over to the two lesser knights still in awe of her actions.

" I mean in all things considering everyone will have gotten their revenge in the end. Mead placed a bug in his drink in the villagers' names...the holy knight shoved his blade into the ground and cut off their water supply….and now I get to keep his sword as my own for having to free up the water." Alfie smiled wickedly in their direction, the blade gleaming in the sunlight.

" We're all tied up." she then pointed the blade at the duo, "Unless you want to continue the fight? But if you do that, I'll have to get revenge again. Either way, it ends up good for me." she purred. Paling at the implication, the two knights tripped over each other as they scrambled to get away from the pink haired menace.

"That...that was amazing, lady." Mead gaped at their fleeing figures in the distance. "But what about the water?" he asked. "Hm?" Alfie looked down at the boy. "You guys got a well?" she asked. "Yeah, over there." Mead pointed in the direction of the well. Following his finger, the crowd parted with ease as the woman approached.

Tearing the wood planks off the opening, Alfie peaked down into the darkness - humming in thought before taking a step back and kicking the cobblestoned structure half heartedly. Many sweatdropped at her actions but that soon disappeared when the ground beneath her feet began to rumble. "That's better." Alfie took another step back just in time for the water to shoot upwards like a gyser causing the villagers to cry out in jubilation.

"Good job, Alfie." Meliodas said walking up beside her with Elizabeth and Hawk in tow. "Thanks." she smiled but then soon frowned, "Where did you get that?" she pointed to the mug. She knew the smell of Vanya ale anywhere. "Oh this? Back at the tavern." he said simply. Alfie moaned in disappointment, knowing Meliodas there was none left besides what was in his hands.

"So, you keeping the sword huh?" Meliodas looked at the blade. "Yeah, why not? The guy didn't want it that bad if he was willing to leave it behind to mess with their water. He can get another." Alfie shrugged. "But won't he come looking for it?" Elizabeth asked worridly. "Well if he does it'll give us a chance to question him to see if he knows where the other sins are." Meliodas pointed out. "Hey lady," Mead walked up to Alfie. "Yeah?" she looked down at him. "You pulled that sword out, does that mean you're a-" the little boy began but was cut off.

"Does that mean she's a waitress of my fine establishment on top of the hill outside the town? Sure does!" Meliodas popped up and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Huh? Wait, that's not what I meant!" Mead protested, though he was ignored as Meliodas swung Alfie around and led his people back towards his tavern. "Everyone's free to come on up to the Boar Hat for a round of free drinks and food if you'd like!" the blonde called aloud, grinning at the cheers that graced his ears and the amount of cash that would soon follow.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"You know I'm having seconds thoughts about this...I've never done anything like this before. I don't know if I'll be any good." Elizabeth admitted bashfully. None of the villagers in Vanya had taken Meliodas' offer lightly. The tavern had been filled to the brim with patrons and everytime someone left, two more people arrived. "Nothing to it but to do it, doll face" Alfie advised as she smoothly picked up mugs of ale waiting on the bar and disappeared into the crowd once more.

Elizabeth gaped at how easy Alfie made it seem and yet she still couldn't find it in herself to move out from behind the bar. " So you're nervous because it's your first time right?" Meliodas wondered.

"Yes! I'm scared I won't be any good." Elizabeth fidgeted. "I understand...now could you repeat that again but slower?" the blonde's voice dropped scandolously, earing a thrown cup to the head curtesy of Hawk. "What are you doing with her you pervert?!" the pig glared. "If you're so nervous, then just work the bar for now." Alfie had popped back up and deposited dirty empty plates for Meliodas to take into the back to be washed.

"That could work too." the blonde nodded, taking the plates in hand and disappearing. "I can do that. Just get you the drinks people want right?" Elizabeth looked to Alfie. "Exactly, Hawk can help you if anything." the sin assured.

"Waitress!"

"Still doesn't hurt to watch me though, Meliodas will come for his spot as barkeep soon enough." Alfie warned before moving off to the man who had flagged her down. "What can I do for you,sir?" Alfie smiled politely at the man. "Sit down girlie, let's talk." he grabbed her arm lightly and pulled. "Talk about what?" she decided to humor his and sat down across from him.

"What you're after." he said vaguely. "You pulled that sword out of the ground today and saved this village. No ordinary person could do that. Only a holy knight could, as you said earlier." Alfie fought to not narrow her eyes on him.

"You're point?" she asked. "My point is, that you aren't a holy knight. Not any more at least." the man shook his head. "How do you know for sure?" Alfie questioned. "Because no holy knight would keep a companion's sword instead of returning it. Nor would they have a tattoo of a beast on their neck." the man lightly fingered the collar of Alfie's top to reveal the dark red mark of the tiger.

"Again, I ask what you're point is." Alfie pulled out of his grasp and fixed the collar of her shirt. "My point is, that despite who you are - we owe you." the man said slowly. "So I'm going to tell you what I heard of the sins, though I'm warning you now- they may not be up to date." he warned.

"I'll still take it." Alfie assured. " I don't know if it's true but they say that the Grizzly sin of Sloth is dead." the man stated lowly so they wouldn't be over heard. Alfie immediately frowned at this new whether it be true or not. She liked King, sure she and him butted heads over things but they still held respect for one another. "The Goat sin of Lust can be spotted roaming around in remote forests, that's where he was always spotted at least." the man added as an after thought.

Alfie didn't mind Gowther either. He was emotionally stunted and didn't understand what was socially acceptable, which was pretty funny at times. He didn't let emotions - whatever little bit of them he had- get in the way of what he was doing. Logic and facts triumphed in his mind.

King and Gowther were powerful to say the least too, and with one down and one wandering the wilderness..."Thank you for the information." Alfie pushed away from the table and returned to the bar, only to see Elizabeth was gone. "Hey Hawk, where'd doll face go?" she looked to the pig. "She ran out a few minutes ago, I think I seen the boss following after her." Hawk recalled.

Alfie pinched the bridge of her nose with a small groan, though tensing a moment later at the large amount of magic heading towards them. Moving quite fast at that. The pinkette considered going out to check to see what it was, but if Meliodas was out there then there was no need. Hawk couldn't very well tend the tavern by himself either.

"Hey Alfie, I think you should know something…" Hawk mentioned, "Before Elizabeth ran out, I overheard Mead and one of the village women talking. She said something about sending him to the Forest of White dreams and Mead seemed pretty determined to not go there. Even said something about Holy Knights not daring to go there. Do you think it could be where a sin is be hiding?" the pig wondered.

"It's pretty likely so, yeah." Alfie nodded. "I just got a tip myself. The Sloth sin has apparently kicked the bucket but the Goat sin likes to roam remote forests." the pinkette passed along. "Well that's a pretty broad tip." Hawk tutted. "Yeah, but it gives us something to work with at least." Alfie shrugged.

"We need four more ales over here!"

"Two ales and a meat pie!"  
" We want a stack of ribs!"

Alfie deadpanned at the shout of consectutive orders, "I'm going to kill Elizabeth and Meliodas for leaving me alone to serve everyone." the pinkette groaned, producing six mugs and slamming them onto the counter to be filled. "What am I chopped liver?!" Hawk stomped a hoof. "No, but I'm sure that last guy and his friends would like you made into ribs." Alfie pointed to the customer in question. "WHAT?!" Alfie smirked in amusement as she filled the mugs in succession, placing a serving pallet on Hawk's back and depositing the drinks.

"Better not let them catch you." she teased with a wink, slapping his rear lightly to get him going. Hawk squeaked, ears jolting far above his head for a moment before he whipped his head around and lightly glared at her. "Watch the goods, would ya!" he protested before snorting and walking off hautily to deliver the drinks. "Kinky. How come you never told me you were into that kind of stuff?" Alfie felt Meliodas' hands on her bum before she processed his words.

The delay allowed the blonde a few good extra seconds before his hands were forcefully removed. "Because it's none of your business." Alfie quipped looking down at the handsy sin of wrath, a faint blush dusting her cheeks. Meliodas' eyes widened slightly, "Oh wow I was just kidding, but I'll be sure to remember that for future reference." he finished with a grin.

Alfie opened her mouth to respond but soon frowned, "Hey what happened to your shirt...and hand?" the sleeve of his shirt was completely torn to shreds and there was blood on his hand. Taking his hand into her own for closer inspection, Alfie frowned at the damage. His body may have been healing the wound slowly but there was still a nasty gash left behind.

"Yeah about that, we should probably get going." Meliodas stated, "A holy knight knows we're here and he isn't looking to make friends." Alfie looked up and seen Elizabeth standing off to the side with a worried expression. "We'll let people get their last orders in before we kick them out. Then we head for the White forest of dreams." Meliodas explained.

"You heard that a sin could be hiding there too?" Alfie looked to him a bit surprised. "Yeah, when did you find out?" he asked. "Hawk told me." the pinkette then leaned down to whisper in Meliodas' ear. "I also heard that King may be dead and that Gowther is traveling through remote forests." Alfie conveyed the information. When she didn't get an immediate responce, Alfie was going to question on her friend's well being before she suddenly felt two hands on her boobs.

"Have you heard a word I said?!" Alfie pushed the groping blonde away, her cheeks a healthy red. "Sure I have." Meliodas nodded with ease, "King may be dead and Gowther is living out in the bowels of a forest somewhere." he recited.

"Don't worry your pretty pink head about it. We'll see if these rumors are any true or not." the blonde assured the pinkette, wrapping his hand with some gauze he got from a cabinet behind the bar. "Hawk, why don't you go ahead and sound the call?" Meliodas looked to the pig. " Sure thing." Hawk nodded.

"LISTEN UP!" Elizabeth was surprised at the vocal range of the pig, " PUT YOUR LAST ORDERS IN, PAY AND THEN BE READY TO SCOOT OUT THE DOOR! WE'RE CLOSING UP SHOP!"

"But what about my ribs?" a customer asked. "You can get them to go and those had better be beef ribs, mister!" Hawk yelled. Alfie huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes lightly, "Doll face!" she looked to Elizabeth, "take this notepad and start writing down orders at least." the pinkette tossed the item in question to her, followed by something to write with. "Y-Yes! I can do that" the green haired woman nodded assuredly, taking the two items and began going from table to table.

"Got any idea on who the holy knight is?" Alfie murmured to Meliodas under her breath. "No, but in all honesty I'm not trying to find out." the sin looked to the innocents around them, "Not with all these people here at least." he noted. "Whoever it is, we'll take care of it - that's for sure." Alfie patted her friend on the back before moving off to help Elizabeth.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Man if I had known we'd be stuck walking through this forest for three hours, I would of just stayed in bed." Alfie sighed heavily. Three hours of walking through a dense white fog and dead trees. No other living creatures there besides themselves. "Aw come on Al', admit it." Meliodas smiled beside her, "You're enjoying this." he said knowingly.

"Living the dream." Alfie rolled her eyes. "Well even if you're not happy to be here, then you should know that I am. Wouldn't have any other person with me to watch my back." Meliodas held his hands behind his head.

"You two must have been friends for a long time now to be so close, right?" Elizabeth observed from slightly behind them. "That's right!" the man confirmed. "If this friendship has been enjoyable is the real thing to wonder." Alfie mused dryly, though there was a hint of humor in her tone. "Well I've enjoyed every second of our friendship." Meliodas sighed happily, appearing behind the woman and groping her lovingly. "I'm sure you have." Alfie knocked his hands away.

"Hey Meliodas," Hawk called from a bit further up. "Are you sure we're gonna find anyone here - let alone a sin?" the pig wondered. "No." the sin captain said simply, much to the animal's ire.

"What?! Then what the heck are we doing out here?!" Hawk snorted, a puff of smoke coming out of his nose. "Following up on a rumor." Meliodas explained, "We need to lay low anyways, just until the holy knight moves on past Vanya village." he said dismissively. "You know I heard a rumor about this place," Hawk started looking around nervously, "They say that there's a monster in this forest, lurking in the shadows...waiting for the perfect moment to strike its' unsuspecting prey." he trailed off fretfully.

"Ahhh!" Elizabeth screamed suddenly, "What is it?!" Hawk screamed a split second later, terrified himself. "Something's touching me from behind." the green haired girl whimpered. Looking over, Alfie narrowed her eyes on Meliodas' wandering hand on her rear end. "Cut it out." she snatched Elizabeth away, "You're scaring her." the older woman pushed the princess in front of her and nudged her to get walking again.

"It's clear to me that what we discussed went in one ear and out the other." she glared at Meliodas. "What you two discussed?" Elizabeth frowned confused. "Don't worry about it, it's nothing." Alfie quickly dismissed, "Anyways, the terrain around here is too rough for a horse to go through and its so hard to figure out where you truley are that merchants and explorers just go around. Ergo, it's the perfect place to hide. If one of us were to be anywhere then this would be the place." she explained.

"Oh, well that makes sense." their animal friend agreed. However Alfie's brow furrowed in confusion when Hawk's answer came across as numerative and distorted. "Oh wow." Meliodas was surprised at the sight before him, one Hawk had turned into at least seven. "Huh? What the?" the pigs chorused together, looking amongst one another. "Is this the doing of the monster of the forest?" Elizabeth wondered. "Quite frankly, I'm terrified." the blonde blinked. "Meliodas!" a Hawk exclaimed, running towards the man, "You gotta help me, I'm the real Hawk!"

"No you're not, I am."

"Yeah right you liar!"

Uncertain what to do, the trio of people watched uselessly as the pigs all fought amongst one another as they threw accusations left and right on which pig was the real Hawk. "Sooo, what are we going to do about this?" Alfie asked, scratching the back of her head. "Umm, start hitting them until the clones disappear?" the blonde guessed, rushing forward and doing just that. "This guy is cruel." the pigs groaned on the ground in pain, each with their own number of lumps on their heads.

"Hawk, are you okay?" Elizabeth asked worridly. "Waaahhh! Elizabeth!" the pigs suddenly jumped up rejuvenized and hid behind the soft spoken woman, " Please help! Even my mom would never hit me like that." they cried.

"And clearly in shows." Alfie mumbled, the density of the fog suddenly thickening to limit their view even further. "More fog?" she said confused, tensing at the sensation of movement behind her, "What was that ?" Alfie turned and seen that the Hawk copies had disappeared and were replaced with copies of Elizabeth.

"Hi, sir Meliodas - lady Alfie!" the Elizabeth clones chimed merrily. "Fantastic," the pinkette frowned, eyes darting from one green haired princess to the next as the clammered over each other.

"You recognize me don't you?"

"I'm the real Elizabeth."

"No, I am!"

The tiger sin let out a small gasp when Meliodas suddenly snagged her around her waist and jumped away from the mob of copies closing in on them. "Hey! What about me?!" Hawk yelled angrily, having been left behind in the mob of Elizabeths. "Leave this place." a raspy voice sounded, echoing through the air. Landing on a boulder, Alfie and Meliodas both looked around for the source of the voice.

"Get out of this forest, humans." another voice came. "Did you catch that?" Alfie scanned their surroundings. "Yeah, I did." Meliodas did the same but neither could pin down where the voices had come from exactly.

"It would help if they would shut up." Alfie glared down at the copies of the princess. "Can you tell the difference?" Meliodas asked but his friend shook her head. "What a shame." he sighed lightly. "Well there's only one thing left to do." he trailed off, "Alright ladies - if you want to prove to me that you're the real Elizabeth then you need to do exactly as I say. Got it?" Meliodas held a mischevious gleam in his eye. "Got it!" they chorised together, looking up at him expectantly.

"Right hand up in the air." he ordered firstly. "Yes sir!" the Elizabeths obeyed with ease. "Put your left one on your cheek." his grin never waivered as he stared at the scene playing out in front of him. Not a single one of them had fought his requests.

"And now call out my name and be naughty about it." Alfie deadpanned at this, knowing that he was getting way more enjoyment out of this than he should of. "Sir meliodas hi!" they trilled. "Now squeeze your boobs" Alfie actually did slap him upside the head for the last order. "Cut it out." she glared down at the now pouting blonde.

"If you want to prove yourself to him," Alfie turned to the crowd of imposters, " then jump as high as you can right now." the pinkette drolled knowingly, watching as all but one Elizabeth jump into the air. "I can't!" the deviant cried with a blush, stunning her clones. "Found you, Doll face." Alfie smirked, rushing forwards and snatching the princess up before returning to the top of the rock - Meliodas flying into action and disposing of the others.

"You alright?" the tiger sin quirked a brow after setting her down on her own feet. "Y-yes I'm alright, thank you, lady Alfie." Elizabeth assured, her blush turned into a healthy red. "Um, how did you exactly know that I wouldn't be able to jump?" she asked. "Cause Meliodas did the same thing to me the first night you arrived." Alfie snorted. Elizabeth gaped, "Wait you mean sir Meliodas-!" she squeaked in disbelief. "I know your pain." Alfie patted her back comfortingly.

"Hey look!" Hawk caught their attention. "Those are hide and seeks, prankster imps!" after the clones had been popped, three small cloaked figures jumped from the smoke clouds and fled deeper into the forest. "Let's go! They're probably headed for something in the direction they're running to." Meliodas cried, running after them. "Hey, you forgetting something?" Alfie called out to him as she and the princess followed after.

"Hm?...Oh yeah!" the blonde slammed on the breaks and turned to Elizabeth with his hand wrapped around something. "Here you go, you'll be needing these." Meliodas dumped her bright pink underwear into Elizabeth's hand before turning around and kicking up dust as he ran away.

"At least he returned them" Alfie chuckled at Elizabeth's bewildered facial expression. Snapping out of her stupor, the young princess awkwardly slipped on her underwear and proceeded to run after Meliodas with Alfie at her side. " Whatever you do, don't let them out of your sight guys!" Meliodas noticed that the two women had caught up to him fairly quickly. "Those imps have to heading towards somewhere." he said resolutely.

" A hide out?" Elizabeth tried. "Or they could be going to someone one for back up" Alfie offered up. "Hey look!" Hawk cried, "I think that's a girl up ahead" the pig's eyes focused on figure up ahead. "They're not going to attack her are they? A defenseless little girl like that?" Elizabeth fretted.

Training her eyes on the prone figure curled up into a ball, Alfie was unsure of who it was at first. However the closer, they got, Alfie became more sure of who the girl was. She wasn't little either like Elizabeth had thought earlier….

"Lady Diane!" the imps called pitifully. " Lady Diane!" the trio stopped before the giant, "Wake up Lady Diane, we accidentally let holy knights into the forest." they clustered around her head. A closed eye lid suddenly snapped open to show a beautiful hidden purple colored iris within. "Woah," Hawk shivered, her giant hand slammed on the ground as the mysterious woman pushed herself to her feet.

"She's huge!" the pig cried, her shadow falling over the small group of four strangers of the forest as she stood to her original height. "You said some holy knights got in, did you?" the giant glared down at Alfie and Meliodas hatefully. Alfie raised a finger to correct Diane when suddenly the wind was knocked out of her frame by being snatched into the air with a brutal grip around her frame.

"Hey, No!" Elizabeth cried, "Don't you dare hurt sir Meliodas or lady Alfie!" the princess protested helplessly. "Sir Meliodas...lady Alfie?" Diane repeated the names in confusion though her harsh expression didn't falter. "H-hey Diane." Alfie flashed a two finger wave, coughing a bit. "Yo, what's it been like ten years since we all saw each other?" Meliodas tacked on with a smile. "What?" the giant brought the duo in for a closer look to scrutinize her hostages better.

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"CAPTAIN, CHIEF!" Diane yelled merrily upon recognition, cuddling the duo as best as she could. "Captain?" Elizabeth said confused over Diane's ecstatic cries. "Chief?" Hawk joined the princess in confusion. "Oh it's so good to see you both again, these past ten years has been so long!" Diane's smile was brighter than the sun, the joy radiating off of her couldn't help but spread to Alfie too. "It sure has. I'm glad to see that you're okay." The pinkette smiled in return. "Hold on, this is Diane? The Serpent's Sin of Envy?" Hawk wondered.

Perking at this, Diane looked down and spotted Hawk. "Oh you guys thought of everything! You remembered how much I love whole roasted pig." she grinned, reaching down towards Hawk with a free hand. "Hey wait! Don't eat me lady!" Hawk squealed, trying to run away but was quickly captured and thrown over a fire that Diane had thrown together rather rapidly.

" Can't eat you raw now can I?" Diane giggled, mouth watering at the smell of the roasting pig. "Oh wow, it does smell good now, doesn't it?" Alfie sniffed the air. " Sure does." Meliodas agreed. "Don't act like it's not me she's cooking!" Hawk protested around the apple shoved in his mouth. "Get me down! I can feel my rump roasting!" he wailed, thrashing around as best as he could from his hogtied position on the rotisserie stick.

"Alright, alright. Calm down Hawk, you're okay." Alfie wiggled out of Diane's hold and jumped on down to Hawk's side, removing the pig from over the fire. "Awe" the brunette giant sighed in disappointment. "Well that stinks." she pouted, "By the way, who's the girl?" Diane pointed to Elizabeth. "Oh!" the princess blushed lightly, "I'm Elizabeth, and I'm traveling with sir Meliodas and Alfie as they help me on my quest." she informed.

"Quest?" Diane's brow furrowed in suspicion. " The holy knights have gone crazy are going to put this country in a war. Elizabeth wants all eight of us to put a stop to it." Alfie explained simply. "Once we're all gathered of course." Meliodas pipped up. Diane tensed and glared down at the green haired princess in suspicion. "Is that so?" the giant murmured unconvinced. However while Diane was scrutinizing Elizabeth, something danced on the edges of Alfie's senses. "Hm?" the pinkette turned around and peered deeper into the forest, wondering what the sensation was.

"Hey." Alfie uttered. " Did you feel that?" she directed towards Meliodas and Diane. "Feel what?" the male wondered. Alfie's ear twitched minisculy a split second before she was suddenly before Meliodas' face and kicking away what was soon to be discovered a thrown battle axe. The weapon twirled in the air uselessly before the blade dug into the earth below.

"That." the pinkette glared at the weapon before turning her gaze to where it came from in the first place. While the tiger sin was glaring into the fog of the forest, Hawk's nose started to twitch its' self. "Hey, does anyone else rain?" he asked curiously.

"Rain?" Elizabeth copied in confusion, though tensed when the rumble of thunder suddenly greeted her. "Look up there!" Hawk spotted the mysterious thundercloud first before any of them. Lightning jumped around within the cloud for a few moments for show before coming down and striking all of them, leaving restrictive rings of lightning wrapped around their frames. "What's up this?" Meliodas quirked a brow. " Well this is unfortunate." Alfie grumbled, testing the strength of their electric bonds.

"Well, well, well. It would seem that we meet at last." the clink of armor graced their ears before the smooth masculine voice did. Approaching them was a man with pink hair and blue eyes to match Alfie's features clad in armor, at his side was a sheathe missing the sword. At his side was an orange haired individual in similar armor and purple eyes.

"Do we know you?" Alfie wondered. "Sure don't look familiar." Meliodas tacked on. "Gilthunder…" Elizabeth whispered in realization. "Gilthunder! Is that you?" she asked in disbelief. The pink haired man remained silent, emotionless even. "You seem to have a fan, Gilthunder." his companion wasn't so quiet. "Do you know her? Or does she simply know you from seeing you around the palace?" the unnamed man grinned.

"She is Princess Elizabeth of Liones." Gilthunder said blankly, " I was the King's attendant as a child and because of my father's position - Elizabeth and I seen much of each other." he answered. "Wait! I know you!" Alfie realized after a few moments of thinking over what the purple eyed man had said and began to laugh. "You're Gilweed!" she laughed some more, "Hey Meliodas, its baby Gilweed!" Alfie crowed, looking over to the blonde.

"Gilweed?...Ohhh! Little Gill!" Meliodas also recognized the grown man in front of them. " Hey man, long time no see - how's it been going?" he chuckled good naturedly. "Gilweed?" Gilthunder's only outward reaction to his companion chuckling at his side was a twitch of his hand closest to where his sword should of been. A move that didn't go unnoticed by Alfie.

"So it's your sword I have then. Gotta say it's pretty careless for a holy knight like yourself to just leave your weapon laying around." she tutted. "You lost your sword?" the orange haired man looked to his companion unamused. "I didn't lose it, Quinn," Gilthunder corrected monotonously. "Yeah he just used it to block off Vanya's water supply." Alfie pursed her lips. "And used his lightning to partially destroy the very same village when he threw a spear at us." Meliodas tacked on.

Flashing behind Alfie, Gillthunder grabbed the sword strapped to her waist and reclaimed possession of it. "Aww." she whined with a pout. "Do you have any idea why the eight deadly sins are being hunted down?" the pink haired male asked, taking the blade and holding it to Meliodas' throat. "Not really." he admitted. "Half of us want retribution by total eradication of the rebelious order who once plotted to overthrow the kingdom." Gilthunder explained.

"The other half," Quinn appeared behind Alfie, holding his axe to her throat in a similar position. "Just want to battle with them to see if they'll be the ones to go down in history for ridding the world of a member of the sins." he finished. "And you guys are in the third category that ends up with us sitting down having lunch together, right?" the pinkette woman tried. " Well if you were any other person then sure." Quinn smirked.

"You can pretend we were a different person and no one would be the wiser." the woman suggested. "If only the world was that simple." her captor hummed. "So if you guys aren't here to eat lunch with us, then which category do you fall in?" Meliodas asked. "Both...unfortunately. It really is a shame to cut up something like yourself." Quinn looked to Alfie.

"My companion is right." Gilthunder spoke, "We are here for both reasons….but I want more." he declared. "Is that right?" Meliodas looked back at the male behind him. "Yes. I want to avenge the death of my father, Zaratras- the most powerful grand master and prove that I am even greater than he was by killing you." Gilthunder glowered. "So you think that I'm the one who killed your father?" Meliodas asked slowly.

"No." this answer surprised the blonde, "I know it wasn't you." Gilthunder admitted. " The person who killed my father...orphaned me and dozens of other children of holy knights….IS STANDING RIGHT HERE!" the holy knight roared, launching towards Alfie with a murderous glare on his face and sword raised to strike.

Jumping backwards, the woman avoided the attack successfully but in doing so - she took a small cut to the throat from Quinn's axe in the process. " TELL ME WHY!" he continued to charge and attack, forcing the woman to jump and dodge his assaults. "TELL ME WHAT MY FATHER COULD HAVE POSSIBLY DONE FOR YOU TO GET YOUR VENGENCE AGAINST HIM!" the boulder Alfie landed on was soon obliterated after jumping away to avoid Gilthunder.

" I REMEMBER YOU AS CLEAR AS DAY! HE NEVER STOPPED SPEAKING ABOUT YOU, AELFRYTH! He LOOKED TO YOU AS A DAUGHTER! AND I CONSIDERED YOU A SISTER! WE CONFIDED IN YOU WITH OUR MOST PERSONAL THOUGHTS! " Elizabeth gasped in horror at the sight of the defenseless woman being forced to do nothing but stay on the defence.

" YOU WOULD COME TO OUR HOME FOR DINNER!" Alfie ducked under a swing that would of cleaved her head clean off had she been any slower. "YOU AND HIM WOULD SPAR TOGETHER!" she jumped over a low sweep of the leg. "YOU WERE ONE OF HIS MOST VALUED PEOPLE HE HELD CLOSE TO HIS HEART AND YOU BETRAYED HIM! YOU BETRAYED ME!" Alfie's back contorted into a graceful arch to dodge the devastating jab meant to go into her chest.

The tiger sin's eyes widened when she watched Gilthunder's sword coming towards her in a side swipe that she was too slow to dodge. Biting back a cry, Alfie was thrown backwards from the attack - skidding to the ground painfully. "Lady Alfie!" Elizabeth cried with tears in her eyes. "Gilthunder stop! This isn't what your father would want!" however the male was relentless, he continued to run at the woman even though she had only worked her way to her knees.

"NO, DON'T!" Elizabeth screamed at the top of her lungs, eyes screwed shut just as Gilthunder brought his sword down atop Alfie's head.

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"What the heck are you screaming so loud for, doll face?" Elizabeth gasped, eyes shooting open at the familiar nickname. Shakily looking over, the princess gaped at the sight of Aelfryth smirking up at Gilthunder as she stopped his sword with a single hand wrapped around the blade. The binds he had put her in were gone without a trace. Easing herself onto her feet, Alfie remained nonchalant to Gilthunder's increasing efforts to cut through her skin.

"L-lady Alfie." she breathed in relief. "She's okay!" Hawk cheered. Hearing this, the pinkette woman barked out a laugh. "What? You didn't think I would really let him take me out did you? The cut from earlier is already healed too nonetheless." the princess looked and blinked in surprise when she seen that while her shirt had bloodstains on it, the skin under the clothing was unmarred.

"Oh, and just so you know." Alfie jerked the sword forwards, forcing Gilthunder into arms reach and latched onto the plate of his armor. " I didn't kill your father." she narrowed her eyes on the young man in her grasp. "He was one of my very best friends, and for you to sit there and accuse me of his murder like the rest of the world is doing….it honestly pisses me the hell off, little brother." Gilthunder grunted in pain when her foot was suddenly planted into the metal of his armor as she kicked him away. Flashing into his path of travel, Quinn caught Gilthunder and set him back onto his feet.

"I know you most likely got the idea that she killed him from the rumors and I may not remember much from back then." Meliodas spoke, breaking apart his binds with ease along with Diane. "But I know without a doubt in my being that Alfie is telling the truth. She couldn't have killed him, we were glued to the hip the entire week leading up to the day he died. When we had found Zaratras, he was already dead and we were forced to scatter when the holy knights attacked the castle he was in." Meliodas explained. "Hey." Quinn murmured to his friend. "They seem pretty set on this." he noticed that there was no uncertainty in either of the sins when they explained theirselves.

"Of course they are." Gilthunder pushed out of his hold, "Liars and traitors until the very end. They'll always have each other's backs." he accused. "Well name calling isn't nice." Alfie frowned. "It's time they both meet their end, and then my father who died in her senseless slaughter can finally rest in peace." Gilthunder glared at the female version of himself.

"Let's go Quinn!" the lightning based knight charged forward with feavor. "If you say so." his companion joined his side but with less enthusiasm. "Meliodas, switch with me." Alfie sighed at the impending altercation. "Sure, okay." he shrugged, the duo slapping their hands together flippantly as they briefly crossed paths to exchange targets. "Aww! You guys always gets to have all the fun." Diane whined when she realized that she had been neglected to be brought into the fight. "Man I wish you wouldn't have done that." Quinn frowned in Alfie's face when they clashed. His axe struggled against the deceptively strong cloth bracers on her arms.

"Why?" the woman asked. "I don't like fighting women, rubs me the wrong way." Quinn explained. Alfie pulled a face, "So there's a right way to rub you in a fight?" she knocked the axe away and landed a kick to his stomach. Flipping in the air, Quinn landed on his feet and skidded to a stop, a slight blush was on his face at this point. "I didn't mean it like that and you know it." the knight glared slightly. "How was I supposed to know what you meant?" they ran at each other and clashed again, parrying blow after blow to one another. " You men are on a whole different planet." Alfie danced out of the way of an attack, moving back in to close the distance between them.

"I can say the same about you women." Quinn narrowly avoided getting his eye gouged out. The duo were faintly aware of their respective friends having a much more destructive battle than what they were currently engaging in. "Hey." Alfie decided to speak on it. "Gilweed is putting a lot of effort into fighting Meliodas…..how come you aren't trying that hard with me?" she wondered, deflecting a blow that would of caught her in her ribs.

"I told you before." the orange haired man began, "I don't like fighting women, not to mention that I don't see in black and white like Gilthunder does." Quinn commented, his eyes trailed over to something behind her. "Jump four feet to your right." he said before kicking away. Without putting any thought to it, Alfie followed his example, narrowly missing a burst of electricity at the last second.

"Meliodas, what are you doing? Are you even fighting him?" she asked through gritted teeth. "My bad!" the blonde called with a raised hand. With his back turned on his opponent, Meliodas was unaware of Gilthunder who had appeared directly behind him with his electrified sword drawn back for a devastating blow. "SIR MELIODAS!" Elizabeth screamed warningly.

"CAPTAIN!" Diane called out along with her. "I can't watch!" Hawk squealed, using his floppy ears to block his eyes. Turning to look behind him, Meliodas' eyes widened when he seen the impending attack coming closer and closer to his frame. Flashing into sight behind the male pinkette, Alfie delivered one sharp blow with her knuckles to the arm that was swinging the sword.

Gilthunder let out a loud gasp at the sudden loss of his magic along with the lack of feeling in his arm in general. Delivering another blow to the center of his armored back, a spray of blood squirted out of the holy knight's mouth as his body fell to the ground as if he didn't have a single bone in his body. Alfie let loose a sigh of relief at the collapse of Gilthunder, "Man that was pretty close, huh?" she looked to Meliodas. "Sure was, you saved my butt back there." he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "H-he's down? Just like that?" Elizabeth stuttered in awe. "What happened, I missed it!" Hawk exclaimed.

"What…." Gilthunder's voice drew their attention, "What did you do to me? I can't move….I can't feel anything" he glared up at the blue eyed woman who had put him in such a state. "I put you on a little time out. Attacking someone when their back is turned? Pretty cheap if you ask me." Alfie tutted, a small sly smirk working its way across her lips when she spotted that his sword had flattered to the ground uselessly.

"I'll be taking this back." the woman bent down and picked the weapon up. "Get your hands off of it...Quinn….Quinn!" Gilthunder struggled uselessly to move his head to look back at his companion. Appearing next to his companion, Quinn dropped down onto one knee and began to help. "Get my weapon back. Get it back!" he demanded.

"I dunno….you did attack when his back was turned" the axe wielder mused offhandedly. Gilthunder sputtered incredulously for a moment, "She did the same!" he exclaimed. "Yeah but she gave you a few love taps. She didn't try to cleave you in half." Quinn pointed out. "Thank you." Alfie sang resting the blade over her shoulder. "Love taps? I can't even move!" Gilthunder glared. "We'll consider that a blessing. You're too much of a busy body anyways." Quinn said simply, turning and walking away.

"Hey." Alfie called out lazily, drawing the purple eyed man to a stop. "You got any word on any of the other sins?" she asked. "Don't be greedy now, tiger sin." Quinn chastised. " You can't have the sword and information. It's one or the other." he said bluntly. Alfie made a noise at the back of her throat but otherwise said nothing. "Go on Alfie, give it back." Meliodas beckoned her to do so.

"You've lost your mind." the woman said bluntly. "I'm not giving it back, it's mine now. Why should he get to keep it when all he's been doing is causing problems with it?" she questioned. "Now do you actually have that concern or do you just want to keep it cause it's a good blade?" Meliodas pondered. "Because it's a good blade of course." the onlookers deadpanned at her response.

"Quite frankly I don't know why you're trying to give into them. I'm the one who answered his questions about Zaratras. It's not my fault that Gilthunder didn't believe me." Alfie turned her nose upwards.

"She's got a point." Diane spoke. "Well then, when it's put like that then I guess we are done here." Meliodas looked up at the sky, scratching the back of his head. "Alright, come on guys. Let's get going." Meliodas started walking back towards the Boat Hat. "Works for me." Alfie shrugged, using a hand to cover her mouth as she yawned. Diane, Hawk and Elizabeth followed after dutifully.

"Baste Prison." Quinn's voice stopped the group. "What?" They all turned to look at Quinn. "Quinn, what are you doing?!" Gilthunder glared. "The fox sin is in Baste prison. The grizzly sin will have moved onto the Necropolis by now." the axe wielder said evenly before leaping into a dead tree and taking off back to where ever he came from. "Cool, that worked out pretty well." Meliodas simpered. "And you wanted me to give up the sword for information." Alfie tsked.

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Reviews are love, reviews are life


	3. Chapter 3

"So Ban is in prison and King is dead huh? What do you think about that Diane?" Meliodas asked the giant from his position on her shoulder, holding the two respective wanted posters. The little showdown in the White forest of Dreams had been a few days ago and Meliodas had set Momma Hawk on the right path towards Baste prison. Now it was just a matter of waiting until they got there - which wouldn't be long at all according to their surroundings.

"Well I'm not really sure," Diane admitted, looking at her own wanted poster. "I'm not really concerned with anyone besides you and Al' " she simply put. "HA!" Alfie laughed a bit drunkenly, the pinkette had been lying under the sun on top of Momma Hawk's soft green head. "That's why you're my favorite Diane." Alfie hiccupped. "How are you even feeling the beer's effects right now?" Meliodas blinked over at her.

" I thought your healing factor was supposed to get rid of the alcohol's effects." he noted. "Yeah, yeah." Alfie waved off, " I slowed my healing factor down so that exact thing wouldn't happen….and I'm not drunk - I'm tipsy. There's a difference" she blew air out through her lips. "You can do that?" Diane said surprised. "Sure." Alfie nodded, struggling to sit up. "Just as easy as breathing." the woman shrugged once she managed to do so.

"Um, excuse me…. lady Alfie."

Turning, the three sins were greeted with the sight of Elizabeth and Hawk standing in the doorway of the tavern. "What is it, doll face?" the woman asked as the duo came forward. Elizabeth let out a small eep of surprise when she was suddenly dragged down to sit next to the older woman. "I was just wondering," Elizabeth collected herself, "back a few days ago when you stopped Gilthunder from attacking Sir Meliodas..." she trailed off. "Yeah?" Alfie prompted.

"What was that exactly? You took him down in two hits." the fight was still fresh in the princess' head though it was the last thing the sins were thinking of. "The very reason why Meliodas won't ever fight me." Aelfryth yawned. "Got that right." the man himself admitted unashamed.

"If Al' had wanted to, she could of killed Gilthunder with a single tap to the chest. Me, Diane and the other sins are no exceptions" Meliodas noted. "So do you lead the sins with sir Meliodas?" Elizabeth wondered, "I remember lady Diane called you Chief from earlier before." she mentioned.

Sliding her eyes over to Meliodas, Alfie looked to him expectantly but said nothing. "You could say that," the wrath sin nodded, " but it depends on who you ask. If you ask Diane then she'll say that we co-lead but I still rank above Alfie." Meliodas explained, Diane nodding in the backround. "What do you think?" Elizabeth asked. "Well," he scratched his cheek.

"In all honesty I wouldn't really care if Al' took over. I'd actually prefer it." Meliodas mused. "Not gonna happen." Alfie shot down before either could say anything else further. The slight dodge of the question didn't go unnoticed by the princess, but Elizabeth remained quiet on it, her attention being brought over to the tiger sin when she suddenly started coughing rather violently.

Diane and Meliodas also looked over with concern at the degree of hacks coming from her frame. "Jeez." Alfie wheezed, a small cough coming forth again. "Where did that come from?" Alfie pulled her hand away from her mouth and used her other to wipe away the tears that had bubbled to the surface from how hard her eyes had been screwed shut.

"Do you need me to go get you some water?" Elizabeth asked concerned. "No, it's fine." Alfie assured with a raised hand, pounding on her chest with a fist. "So are we stopping in Dalmally or going straight to Baste?" the pink haired woman asked once she recovered.

"Some of us will go on to Baste." Meliodas nodded his head, "And when I say some I really mean you, Alfie." he clarified. The blue eyed woman blinked in surprise, "Me? Why just me?" she asked. "Because someone needs to stay behind and run the tavern in order to make some money. Plus Elizabeth could use some more practice waitressing." the princess blushed in embarrassment at this, "You can go to Baste, get Ban and come on back." he explained.

"Well why can't Diane come with?" Alfie threw a thumb in the giant's direction. "Because she'll be too busy being our lookout to make sure no holy knights are coming our way." Meliodas said simply. "Well okay, if you say so." Alfie gave up the argument with a shrug, leaning back when the serpent sin suddenly leaned in close to her fellow woman with a smirk.

"Just be sure to keep the reunion kid friendly, alright?" Diane teased. Aelfryth couldn't fight the blush considering the implication Diane had just left her with, "I have no idea what you mean." she turned her head away, yelping when Diane roughly nudged her with a finger in what she probably meant as a playful way "Sure you don't." Diane hummed knowingly. While her smaller companion feigned ignorance, Diane knew that their greedy fox liked to get a bit touchy feely with their revengeful tiger.

Pushing herself to her feet, Alfie yawned and cracked her back with a satisfying series of snaps and pops. "Dalmally is on the horizon." she pointed to the outline of the town in question. "Baste is eight miles further out. Think you can get me there?" Alfie looked up at her giant friend. "You're going now?" Elizabeth asked, watching in concern as the pink haired woman was scooped into Diane's hand.

"May as well get it out of the way, the sooner the better." Alfie answered as the serpent sin brought her high into the air and wound up her arm. "Be quick, Al' and try not to cause too much of a mess, okay?" Meliodas offered a wave of goodbye. "No promises but I'll try." Alfie nodded. "Alright, here we go." Diane announced, "You ready, Chief?" she looked back at the woman in her hand.

"Let it rip, Diane!" Alfie smirked down at her, " Hold on tight." the brunette returned the smirk and threw her passenger with a good amount of strength behind the throw in the direction she requested. Lifting his head to block the sunlight as he watched Alfie's frame quickly get smaller and smaller in the distance, Meliodas let out a low whistle. "Wow. Good throw, Alfie will get there in no time." he said with certainty.

" You know I was thinking about that, Captain." Diane mused, gaining his attention. "What if Ban's already broken himself out? Or what if he isn't there? Word is sure of gotten to the prison by now about us all traveling together. Don't you think it's possible they would move him?" she asked. "Woah, she's got a point." Hawk said in realization however Meliodas remained relaxed.

"Well if that's true and he has been moved then we'll just have to keep looking." the blonde said simply. " And if Ban's already broken himself out then that'll make it all the easier for Alfie to collect him and bring him to us. Don't worry Diane, it'll be alright either way." Meliodas grinned reassuringly to his friend.

"Now," the Dragon sin clapped his hands together, "Let's get you warmed up for the customers, Elizabeth." he looked to the princess. "Oh!" She started a bit, "Yes, of course." Elizabeth nodded and followed after Meliodas as he passed her to walk into the tavern.

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"The fox sin of greed, where is he being kept?" Aelfryth glared down at the grey armored knight she held in her hands. However the man didn't say anything, in fact he seemed to be a bit too limp in her hands. "Hey." she shook him, "Are you dead or just unconscious?" Alfie wondered, not getting a response. Placing her head to the cool metal plate of his armor, she listened for a heart beat.

After finding one, albeit faint, the pinkette pulled away with a sigh and let the guard fall to the ground unceremoniously. That had been the fifth one she had gotten a bit too rough with upon encountering him since entering Baste. "Come on Ban, where are you?" Alfie walked down the corridor, turning her head this way and the to check the cells with bar doors.

After a few more minutes of searching, Alfie's ears perked at the sound of voices coming from down the corridor and around the corner from where she was presently. "Hey did you hear?" the slightly muffled voice of what the woman deduced was a guard spoke. "Hear what?" his must be companion answered. "I heard that there was a sighting of the Eight Deadly Sins making their way to Dalmally. The four Weird Fangs set out to go fight them. Who do you think will win?" the first guard asked.

Alfie sped up her pace a bit towards the voices. The faster she got Ban, the faster they could go help the others if what they said she took for truth. "Depends on how many there are." his friend responded. "Reports say that only three are reunited...Meliodas, Aelfryth and Diane." the guard told his companion.

"Normally I would say that they'd be no match for four active duty holy knights but on the grounds of Aelfryth is the third sin on her way here….." the second trailed off, shivering at the thought, "Just her being alone is dangerous enough, and she'll be wanting revenge sure enough. Was it really a good idea to keep the prisoner here knowing that the tiger sin was on her way? Aelfryth is going to raise the deepest pits of fiery hell to get him back." the pinkette smirked at this, inwardly agreeing with the fact.

"Well that just warms my heart." a familiar voice sounded, causing the woman to gain a skip to her step. "You know good ol' Alfie always was a woman after my heart. I could say the same thing about the others too. This reunion sounds like it's going to be fun." the two guards gasped and leapt away from the large metal door they had been guarding when a large bang sounded from behind it. A foot indentation had appeared in the metal shortly before the whole thing fell off of its hinges and its' solitary occupator stepped out.

"It's the fox sin, Ban."

"How did he get out?"

The two lesser knights looked to Baste's only prisoner in disbelief. For five years he had been chained, imprisoned and impaled by metal spikes, how did he all of a sudden get the strength to get out now? "So," Ban worked on the metal spike in his leg and pulled it out with a relieved sigh. " I didn't mishear you did I?" crimson eyes narrowed dangerously at the thought as he pulled another spike out of his arm.

"The Captain and Chief are alive? " Ban asked as he looked up at the guards again. However before either of them could respond, another their conversation. "What the heck is going on here? Why is the prisoner out of his cell?" a purple haired and hazel eyed knight asked.

"J-Jericho!" the knights exclaimed in shock. The purple haired woman looked unamused at the unintelligent response and turned towards the fox sin himself. "Ban of the eight deadly sins, I don't know how you got out." she began.

"I kicked the door down." Ban answered simply but was ignored. " But get back in there at once. I'm not joking around." Jericho narrowed her eyes on the blue haired man who seriously needed a beard and haircut. "Well you're pretty lippy, aren't you kid?" Ban smacked his lips, stroking his beard thoughtfully.

"Kid? Did you really just call me a kid?" Jericho growled, "I'm an apprentice holy knight, not a kid." she glared, turning to her fellow knights stiffly. "Send word to Sir Golgious and the others. Tell them that Jericho had to kill the fox sin when he refused to compliantly return to his cell after escaping." Jericho instructed.

"Oh dear, what an ugly disposition you have." multiple eyes widened at the smooth voice that sounded, all turning to face the source of the voice that came from behind the two lesser knights. "Honestly with such arrogance like that, it's a wonder how you became an apprentice holy knight." Alfie drolled. The once stunned face of Ban melted into one of joy at the sight of his old friend, "Heeey, Alfie! Long time no see, huh?" he laughed, raising a hand and waving.

"Hey, Ban. Good to see you, man." she returned with a warm smile. " N-No way" the knight closest to the pinkette stuttered in disbelief at the exchange, "We gotta get out of here!" he begged of his companions. "Stand your ground!" Jericho shot down the suggestion heatedly, drawing her blade. "Aelfryth, Tiger Sin of Revenge." she uttered, brow heavily furrowed.

"Yeah?" Alfie quirked a brow. " You speak to me about arrogance and yet here you stand as if you're so sure you're going to come out of this alive." Jericho's grip tightened on the hilt of her sword, "With the death of you two, they'll have to make me into a holy knight." she grinned at the idea. Pursing her lips, Alfie shared a look with Ban before turning her head towards the male knights and made a kissing noise to gain their attention.

"Run." she whispered loudly, smirking at the duo. Flinching, the former prison guards tripped over their own feet respectively as they both streaked past the purple haired woman with no hesitation. Neither was going to deny the opportunity to save their own lives if the sin was allowing them to by fleeing.

"H-Hey!" Jericho exclaimed as they ran past, "Get back here!" she yelled, letting out a frustrated groan at the uselessness of it all. "Fine, whatever." Jericho faced the two sins and readjusted her footing, preparing herself for an attack should one of them move first.

"Hey Ban." Alfie looked to Jericho's sword contemplatively. "Yeah?" the male responded, scratching his bearded cheek. "That's a pretty nice sword she has." Alfie mused, "Get it for me would you?" she asked. Ban's lips curled into a devious smile, revealing his canines. "Sure, not a problem." he agreed. " So it is true, you are the one who's stealing the swords of holy knights and claiming them for your own." Jericho accused.

"Ah!" Aelfryth raised a finger in the air, "I only took one, and it's not stealing. I'm taking over ownership of the blades seeing as their owners don't deserve them...and because I want them" Alfie finished with a shrug, much to Ban's amusement.

"I sure have missed you Al', I don't know how I've made it all this time without you." the blue haired man grinned. The only one who wasn't nearly as amused as the two friends, was the holy knight apprentice.

"The nerve of you two...I'll finish you both off here and now!" Jericho launched forward, headed towards Alfie before Ban jumped in and intercepted her attack. While the purple haired woman was confident she cut the man down from the sound of his yell, Jericho continued onwards to the notorious tiger sin who remained rooted in her spot. "One down, one to go." she smirked to herself.

"Hold it, kid."

Jericho's eyes widened when she was suddenly grabbed from behind and slammed to the ground violently, the air being knocked from her lungs. A clean shaven Ban grinned down at the purple haired wanna be holy knight coughing and gasping away as she tried to regain her breath. "You didn't even give me the chance to thank you yet." his foot slammed down on her stomach.

"I haven't felt this cleaned up in years." Ban rubbed his cheek pointedly. " You even did a good job cutting my hair." the sin felt his blue locks momentarily before grabbing the woman by her throat and raising her into the air. "You could be a barber!" he laughed. "A good one at that." Alfie came beside her companion.

"Now be a good barber and drop the sword," Ban tightened his grip lightly. Jericho narrowed her eyes on the infuriating male sin but did as he said. Alfie caught the sword before it could clatter to the ground and inspected it closely.

"This sword hasn't seen much battle, has it?" the woman said knowingly, "You were made into an apprentice but they assigned you here where nothing ever happens." Jericho glared hatefully at the pinkette as nothing but the truth came from her lips. "Such a blade doesn't deserve to age without seeing battle, I'll take it off your hands." Alfie smiled as if they were lifelong friends, " Consider yourself honored, Jericho." she started until Ban interjected.

"I thought it was Jonko?" he mused confused. "No you deaf bastard, it's Jericho" Alfie laughed lightly. "Oops, my bad." Ban chuckled. "Like I was saying," Alfie turned back to the woman in his grasp.

"Your blade will be the only apprentice blade I'll collect as I take down holy knight after holy knight that tries to take me on. So thank you for the surrender of your blade, it'll be put to good use in battles to come." Alfie promised, Ban set the purple haired woman back on her feet and moved his hand from her throat to her jaw. "Hey, Alfie" Ban's eyes scanned the apprentice up and down, "Jerizo-"

"It's Jericho, Ban"

"Jerlo"

Aelfryth huffed a laugh at the continuous botched naming of the woman. "She has a pretty nice set of armor, doesn't she? But to be honest with you I don't think it suits her." Ban admitted. "It doesn't?" Alfie was confused, she thought it looked fine. "No, it doesn't. Quite frankly I think it would look much better on you." Ban smirked mischievously while his companion deadpanned.

"Don't take her armor." Alfie hit his arm with the back of her hand when he went in to begin stripping Jericho down. "I'm taller than her, it's not going to fit." the pinkette reasoned. "Then we'll pawn the armor off for some cash or melt it for scrap metal." Ban came back undeterred. "Ban don't-" Alfie tried but in a blink of an eye, Jericho was successfully stripped clean of her metal plating and left in her bright pink undergarments on the ground.

"Okay, well just fuck me then." Alfie sighed exhaustedly. It wasn't like her opinion mattered anyways, apparently. "Be careful what you wish for Al'." Ban waggled his eyebrows, "Now let's go meet up with the captain. He's the one who sent you here isn't he?" the duo began walking away. "Yeah, and it sounds like a brawl is about to happen too if it hasn't already. That should be a good warm up exercise for you." Alfie noted.

"How long were you locked up anyways?" the woman then asked. "Five years." Ban shrugged indifferently. "Five years?!" Alfie was nowhere near nonchalant as her friend. "Why would you let them keep you for so long?" she wondered. "What else was I supposed to do Al'?" Ban frowned. "You guys were nowhere to be found and everywhere I went, people got hurt. I didn't have many options. It's not like they could kill me anyways." he said simply.

The pinkette's temper flared momentarily before she got control of it by taking a deep breath in and out. "Just because you can't be broken physically, doesn't mean you can't be broken mentally. " Alfie said simply. Ban looked to his friend for a long moment before returning his eyes onto the path they were traveling. "How are they doing anyways? The captain and Diane." Ban clarified.

"They're the same as always. We have a new tag along, princess Elizabeth of Liones. She's trying to get all eight of us together" the woman informed. "Huh? A princess?" Ban looked to her confused, "Why the hell is a princess traveling with us?" he questioned. "To save the kingdom from holy knights who have lost their minds by trying to send the country into war." Alfie explained flippantly.

"And Captain is okay with helping?" Ban said dubiously. "He has business with us anyways, he's killing two birds with one stone by helping." Alfie proclaimed, pausing when they passed a window. "What's wrong, Alfie?" Ban asked in confusion, following her over to the window. Looking out, an amused smirk graced the sin's lips at the sight before them.

Countless knights stood out in the field before the prison, no doubt waiting for the two sins to come outside. Jericho and a knight with horns on his helmet stood in front of them all. Apparently the woman had found some new armor and a new weapon rather quickly. All in all, it brought back memories from a certain day ten years ago. "Wooow" Ban whistled, " It's like they're up in arms over an escaped prisoner and the friend who helped him." He chuckled lowly.

"Hey Ban….let's arm wrestle." Alfie suggested, turning towards her taller companion. "Arm wrestle?" he echoed confused. " Yeah, why not? You do it with the captain any other time." She backed away from the window. Ban scrutinized the blue eyed woman for a moment in suspicion. "You're not gonna knuckle tap me and make me lose feeling in my arm are you?" Ban asked, causing the woman bark out a laugh. "No Ban, I'll play fair." Aelfryth promised, lowering herself to the ground on her stomach like she had seen him and Meliodas do many times before.

A wide toothy grin appeared on the fox after the vow, "Well alright then," he tossed Jericho's old armor aside,"Let's see what you got. " Ban dropped to the ground as well and clasped his much bigger hand around the woman's smaller one. Neither noticed the dark purple shield pop up and surround the prison. "Readdddyyy?" Ban's crimson eyes gleamed with excitement as he said this, his emotions feeding off of the energy from the woman in front of him.

"GO!" Alfie chirped, her hand automatically feeling resistance from her partner. "Well would you look at that, you're actually holding your own." Ban hummed amused. "I was just about to say the same to you." Alfie mused, their arms straining against one another. The duo paid no attention to the exertion of force they were emitting that was causing the walls to crumble and the floor beneath them start to get closer and closer to caving in on them.

"How many times have you guys arm wrestled anyways?" Aelfryth asked. "Seven hundred and twenty two times." Ban recited perfectly. "And who won the majority?" the woman wondered. "I did, three hundred and sixty one times to be exact." Ban boasted. Alfie scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Yeah right, I think you got yourself confused with the captain." She said.

"What?!" the duo had finally broken through the floor and were falling now. "You must be crazy." Ban said dead serious. "You're biased cause you spend so much time with him." he argued. "Sounds like someone's awful defensive." Alfie sang knowingly.

From outside the prison the knights stood gaping in disbelief at the sight of the prison's integrity shaking and steadily coming apart bit by bit. "I-I don't believe it." Jericho stuttered with a slacked jaw. "Is this really the power of the sins?" she wondered aloud. "My imbreakable shield…" Holy Knight Golgius said just as dumbfounded, tensing when he realized that they were entirely too close to the prison that was collapsing on its self.

Not only were they too close, but the male also realized that if two sins were able to bring down the shield and prison so easily then what they could do to them would be a walk in the park. "Time for a tactical withdrawal!" Golgius cried before teleporting away, sending the battalion of knights with him following suit on two legs. "Hey!" Jericho protested at being left so quickly, "Wait for me!" she dodged falling debris as she ran after her companions.

Coming upon the scene themselves; Diane, Meliodas, Hawk and Elizabeth stood staring at the now destroyed prison in surprise, Elizabeth and Hawk more so than the other two sins. "W-wasn't Alfie and Ban supposed to be in the prison?" Hawk asked tentatively. "Yeah." Meliodas said simply, much to the animal's ire. " You could at least try to show some concern!" Hawk yelled.

"Why should I? They're fine." Meliodas looked at him confused. "You don't know that for sure!" the pig stomped a hoof. "But I do...they're over there." Meliodas pointed to what remained of the prison. Popping his head out of the rubble, Ban first appeared shortly followed by Alfie - the man having used his body as a shield mainly. "Hey thanks for covering me." Alfie stood, shaking her head like a wet dog to rid her hair of the rubble.

"Too bad you lost the match though." she smirked, picking her way out of the rubble and made her way towards her companions now running towards her. Ban blinked incredulously, "I lost the match?...I lost the match?! You're fooling yourself!" he exclaimed following after.

"And you're in denial." Alfie said over her shoulder. "Lady Alfie!" Elizabeth exclaimed and ran up to the taller woman, face filled with worry. "Are you hurt?" the princess questioned, concerned. "Not at all." Alfie grinned down at her and partially turned to reference their newest addition to the team. "Ban's pride may be hurt though." Aelfryth joked. "Ban?" Elizabeth echoed in wonder, looking over to the new man.

"He's the fox sin?" she assumed. The man's disgruntled facial expression turned into one of a lax and easy going one when he regarded the green haired princess. "Sure is." Alfie assured, throwing her arm over Elizabeth's shoulder. "Doll face, meet Ban. The fox sin of greed." the woman introduced the duo. "Nice to meet you, your highness." the light blue haired man placed a hand over his heart and bowed slightly.

"Oh! It's very nice to meet you as well!" Elizabeth returned the bow, Alfie recovering her arm from Elizabeth's person as she did so. "I'm glad to have you join us, sir Ban." Elizabeth then chirped as they straightened back into their original positions. The sin in question huffed lightly, "Pleasure's all mine." Ban purred, eyes trailing over to the pink haired woman at her side for a brief moment before speaking again.

"Good to see you again, Diane." Ban then addressed the giant. "Hmph." The brunette turned her head away disinterestedly, "I could of gone a hundred years without seeing you." she snorted. This caused a grin to break out on the recently freed man's face despite the rude dismissal. "Awe come on Diane, you don't mean that. I know you missed me at least a little bit." Ban chuckled.

"No, I didn't." Diane turned her head even further away, nose stuck up in the air. "Well that's alright," the greed sin simpered, coming up to Aelfryth's side and suddenly pulled her face first into his taller frame. "I still got Alfie after all. She's the only woman I need to care for me " Ban smirked coyly over the woman's surprised squeak.

Ban's shirtless torso was like a furnace and his strong arms were like metal traps, locking her against his chiseled body. Alfie blinked in surprise at this sudden development and could practically feel herself flush in embarassment at the physical contact happening at the moment, her heart beating faster than usual. "Isn't that right, Al'?" Ban leaned down slightly to press his lips against her hair covering his ear.

The gesture caused her flush to worsen but Alfie forced her voice to remain aloof. "I better be." she even threw out a chuckle and tried to free herself but found that she couldn't. Ban wouldn't let go. Something that Diane smirked knowingly at when she had returned her gaze to the duo and observed her friend's dilemma.

"Let go, Ban. You made your point" Alfie tried to seperate herself again but was unsuccessful. "I don't know." Ban sighed deeply, "Diane has me felling a bit neglected, I need reparations. A lot of them. I am pretty greedy after all, make sure you remember that princess." he directed the last part towards Elizabeth with a wink. "Well get them from Elizabeth, then!" Alfie whined, still tugging uselessly against his hold.

The woman gave another tug, perfectly in sync when Ban released his hold on her. A small gasp escaped past Aelfryth's lips as she stumbled to the ground. "Are you alright?" Elizabeth knelt down next to the pinkette, offering her hand to help the other woman up. "Yeah." Alfie accepted her help, and gave the fox sin an annoyed look.

Ban wore a mischevious grin in responce, flashing his canines to the world. However his grin didn't last long seeing as he was abruptly sent flying backwards and crashed into the rubble of the prison that used to stand tall and proud. "Sir Ban!" Elizabeth gasped. "The hell?" Alfie blinked incredulously, looking for the party responsible but then relaxed when she realized what had happened.

Working his way out of the rubble, Ban stood up and cracked his neck to relieve the crick in his neck. "Jeez," he groaned, rolling his neck in a circle. "...that was uncalled for." Ban's red eyes slid over to the shorter male of the group responsible for the attack.

The air was tense between the fox and dragon as they stared each other down for a long series of moments. "W-what's wrong? Sir Meliodas? Sir Ban?" Elizabeth asked tentatively, not liking the level of intensity in the air at the moment. "It's like they're ready to kill each other." Hawk pipped up nervously. "Yeah…" Alfie trailed off. "You two had better stick close to us. It could get ugly." Diane added, not helping their nerves in the least bit.

The silence between Ban and Meliodas lasted for another few moments before the shorter of the two was the first to break it - his tense and angry expression turning into a joyful happy one.

"Ban!" Meliodas cheered, throwing his hands into the air and running towards the blue haired sin. "Captain!" Ban returned just as excitedly and ran to meet the blonde half way. Hawk and Elizabeth sweat dropped at the complete turn around of emotions the duo displayed. "So they were really happy to see each other?" Elizabeth chuckled nervously.

"Sure they are." Alfie smiled fondly at the sight of the duo now engaging in their signature handshake with rapt feveor. "Ban and Meliodas are best friends." the pinkette added on, unblinking when Meliodas was suddenly sent flying backwards in a similar way Ban had moments before. "So that's normal?" Hawk asked dubiously as the fox sin then flashed passed them to return to the blonde's side.

"Depends on your definition of normal." Diane hummed. "But it's normal for them." Alfie nodded. "By the way, Diane." Aelfryth looked to the giant. "Did you run into any holy knights on your way here?" she wondered. "Well we seen one of them run away when you and Ban brought the prison down but outside of that, no. None at all. Why?" Diane questioned in return.

"Because the guards inside were talking about it." Alfie frowned slightly. "That's actually mildly concerning to hear….there were originally four of them here and I doubt that all four fled." she told the giant. Diane's eyes widened at this being brought to light and began scanning their surroundings with a careful eye. "So there's three left hanging around?" Elizabeth asked, moving closer to Aelfryth who was busy scanning their surroundings as well.

"It would seem so, yeah." Alfie answered. "Hey!" she then exclaimed towards where Meliodas and Ban were and threw Elizabeth over her shoulder. "Hey! We got a problem!" Alfie called out, running towards her male companions with Diane and Hawk on her tail. Hearing this, Ban and Meliodas cut their reunion short and looked towards the rest of the group running towards them.

"We need to be on guard!" Diane called out, " Holy knights had been coming for us when we were back in the town, Captain! One left but that still leaves three to be hanging around somewhere." she explained. "Holy knights?" Meliodas echoed with a frown, "But I haven't sensed anything. Not even now" the blonde commented.

"The Weird Fangs." Ban murmured, " Those were the holy knights stationed here." he recalled. "Jude, Ruin, Golgius and Friesia. I killed Jude when he pissed me off during one of our interrogation sessions. And if one of them ran then I bet it was Golgius. I'm pretty sure that's who me and Al' seen outside the window anyways." Ban informed his fellow sin.

"That leaves Friesia and Ruin, then." Meliodas summarized thoughtfully. However before Alfie completely reached Ban and Meliodas, she slammed on her heels - a bell ringing echoed through her head as she slid to a stop. "Lady Alfie?" Elizabeth asked as she was set down. "Get out of here, Elizabeth." Aelfryth glared heatedly on the holy knight that now stood where Ban and Meliodas used to be.

" Go find somewhere safe to hide, go back to Dalmally if you have to. If you come across Ban, Meliodas or Diane then tell them I'm dealing with one of the Weird Fangs" the tiger sin instructed. Multiple sets of eyes widened at hearing this. "What the heck are you talking about, Alfie? Ban and Meliodas are right in front of you!" Hawk cried. "My name is Holy knight Ruin. Member of the Weird Fangs and destroyer of the eight deadly sins." the illusionist chuckled.

"You're pretty confident in yourself, holy knight." Alfie smirked. "Holy knight?!" Hawk and Elizabeth exclaimed in unison. "I can appreciate that and in return I suppose it would only be courteous to offer my name since you gave me yours." an unsettling grin that filled the others with a sense of dread graced the pink haired woman's lips.

" I am Aelfryth, the tiger sin of revenge." she gave a bow without taking her eyes off of her so called opponent in front of her. "I would say that it was nice to meet you…" Alfie straightened and then slowly began to slide into her fighting stance. "But then I would be lying." she finished. "Well this isn't good." Ban frowned in worry. "It's really not good," Meliodas agreed, just as concerned with the situation at hand.

"What are we going to do, captain?" Diane asked warily. None of the present sins had any desire to fight the pink haired threat. Especially when they all knew that Aelfryth was completely capable of killing with one well placed hit. " You guys take the princess and get out of here." Ban spoke up, stepping in front of Meliodas who stood directly across from Alfie.

"What?!" Elizabeth gaped. "After you get her out of here." Ban continued, "Find Ruin. That's whose messing with Aelfryth's mind right now. Take him out and Alfie comes back to us." the fox sin explained, eyes narrowed in anger at the thought of the knight tampering with his friend's mind. "That's a good plan." Meliodas agreed, coming up beside Ban.

"Except for just one thing…." the blonde delivered a pat to the taller man's shirtless back. "I'm going to need you to go find Ruin while I hold off Alfie.." Meliodas said. Ban's eyes widened momentarily before he calmed once more, " She'll kill you." Ban said bluntly. " I'm the only one who can fight her at the moment...there's a reason they call me Undead Ban, captain." the fox said simply.

"I don't know what Ruin looks like," Meliodas then shot down his companion's argument. " Only you do and if you're that worried about me then make sure you don't take forever finding Ruin….or will I have to do that too?" he then grinned. Ban couldn't fight the smirk on his face despite the situation. "Fine." he finally conceeded, the blue haired man and blonde jumping away from each other just in time to dodge a drop kick from the woman of the hour herself.

"Make it fast, Ban." Meliodas called out. "On it! Ruin can't be far." his friend assured before disaappearing in a blurr of movement. "Let's go, Elizabeth." Diane followed the fox's example and scooped up the human and pig into her hands before taking off in the opposite direction of the fight in order to stay clear of any stray blows.

"Be careful, sir Meliodas!" Elizabeth cried from within the giant's grasp. While he wasn't able to verbally respond since he was too busy dodging a barrage of punches, Meliodas acknowledged the call inwardly though he was more worried than he let on. "Come on Alfie, we're friends!" he winced when a punch came too close for comfort.

"I'm going to enjoy tearing you out of that armor." Aelfryth grinned at the armor clad knight in response. "I'd rather you didn't." Meliodas grumbled, tensing slightly when the sound of a bell suddenly echoed. Blinking, the blonde glared at the armored man that had appeared before him. "Where did you come from? What'd you do with my friend?" Meliodas questioned.

"I am Holy knight Ruin. Member of the Weird Fangs and destroyer of the eight deadly sins." The armored knight answered. "Alfie was right, you really are confident in yourself." Meliodas said placing a hand on the hilt of his sword and then charged forwards, drawing the broken blade. "Now turn her back to normal!" he yelled, swinging the blade around in a graceful arc in order to cut the knight down. However instead of hitting flesh, the sword hit plan rock and dirt.

"I don't understand." Elizabeth's brow furrowed in concern, "What is he talking about?" she had managed to hear what the blonde had said. "Maybe he's under the same spell Alfie is." Hawk suggested. " It would make sense." Diane agreed through narrowed eyes, watching the fight with rapt attention. Each were trading blow after blow and succeeding in dodging each other's attacks for the next handful of minutes that followed.

Eventually, a blank eyed Aelfryth inwardly cursed her opponent out of annoyance of his perseverance, eminating a pulse of magic unseen to any but her. "That sword you carry, holy knight….that sword will be mine to add to my collection, of that I can promise you." Aelfryth vowed. Bracing himself, Meliodas glared at the pink haired woman. "Come and take it then." he welcomed the challenge.

Streaking forwards, Alfie momentarily disappeared before reappearing in front of Meliodas. Raising her sword above her head, the woman slashed the blonde diagonally across the chest, spraying his blood all over her front.

"Meliodas just stood there and took it!" Hawk yelled in horror, watching Meliodas be thrown from the attack. "Why didn't he dodge it?!" the pig asked. Wincing, Meliodas himself was confused on what happened as he stood to his feet. "She moved so fast, I didn't even get a chance to dodge." he murmured to himself, looking up just in time to catch a breif glimpse of blue eyes before he was attacked over and over again.

"Why isn't he fighting back?!" Elizabeth cried, "He has time to dodge the attacks!" tears began to roll down Elizabeth's cheeks as she watched Aelfryth proceed to ram Gilthunder's sword into Meliodas' stomach and then drew Jericho's sword next in order to hack away at Meliodas. Diane gritted her teeth to the breaking point, her free hand formed into a fist that shook with rage.

"Because he can't." Diane answered with a mutter. "What do you mean he can't?" Hawk asked incredulously. "It's apart of Alfie's magical ability." the giant watched pained as Aelfryth continued to tear into Meliodas who could do nothing but take the attacks.

"Her magical ability is called Absolute Will. Anything that can be created or anything that exists, can be manipulated in anyway she wants. So long as Alfie's will power stays strong, her power is virtually unlimited." Diane explained to the wide eyed passenger's in her hand. "And right now, Aelfryth is distorting time in Meliodas' reality." Diane informed.

"So she's slowing down time from his point of view so that he can't dodge or attack." Elizabeth said to herself and then gaped in horror, turning her head back towards the fight just in time to see the pink haired woman shove a hand into Meliodas' shoulder and proceed to tear the blonde's arm clean off. "Sir Meliodas!" the princess yelled in horror. "She's going to kill him at this rate!" Hawk wailed as the woman then violently ripped Gilthunder's old sword from the blonde's body.

"I know." Diane said simply, "Which is why I can't just stand by and watch anymore." she knelt down onto one knee and deposited the pig and princess onto the ground. "I have to do something, even if it gets me killed." determination burned brightly in the giant's eyes. "Our only hope at getting Alfie and Meliodas back to normal is to get rid of that holy knight Ban went after. You two have to find Ban and help him." Diane told the duo.

"Well that won't be necessary."

Diane, Hawk and Elizabeth all started at the voice and turned around and seen the blue haired fox sin himself standing there - not a hair out of place. In his hand he held a small golden bell.

"Ban?" Diane asked, "Where's Ruin?" she wondered. "Taken care of." the sin replied with ease, jingling the bell in his hand once. Aelfryth had been moving to tear off Meliodas' other arm off when she suddenly stopped, the echoing bell in her ears causing her to do so. Blinking harshly, Alfie shook her head in order to clear away the fog in her mind.

" Man, what the hell happened?" she groaned, rubbing her temples. "Beats me." Meliodas's voice chimed from next to her. "Hm?" Alfie looked over to her friend and seen the blonde's beaten bloody form. "Hey...what happened to you? Where's your arm?"Alfie asked in concern.

Meliodas paused to look down at where his tattooed arm should be and seen nothing but a nub of what remained, "Oh yeah, look at that…" he wiggled the stub. Looking up, Meliodas returned his gaze to his friend and then pointed with the remaining upper limb he had. "You have it." he said simply. Raising a hand, Aelfryth blanched at the sight of Meliodas' arm being held in her grasp.

"But, I don't remember taking it from you…" the pink haired woman trailed off weakly. Her mind was foggy, the last thing she remembered was warning the others that there were holy knights lurking by. "Sir Meliodas!" Elizabeth's call caught the blonde's attention. However the pink haired woman paid no attention to the others, her brow was furrowed heavily as she tried to piece together what had happened.

"Hey Al'? Can I get my arm back?" Meliodas requested, sheathing his sword once more. Wordlessly, Aelfryth handed the blonde his arm back with ease and moved off as the others reached them, sheathing her swords away for the time being. Something was dancing on the edge of her senses now, they were being watched from a distance.

Seeing her withdrawal and concerned look, Ban joined his female friend. "What's wrong?" he asked upon arrival. "Everything." Alfie answered truthfully. Meliodas' blood soaked her clothes and swords, she had no doubt inflicted the wounds on the man, tore his arm off and didn't even remember any of it. On top lof that there was still a holy knight missing.

"Sir Meliodas, you're really hurt!" Elizabeth exclaimed in the background, her bright blue eyes trailing over his injuries, "We need to get you to a doctor right away and maybe we can save your arm." She insisted. Meliodas looked to the detached limb thoughtfully, " Yeah it would really stink to have to get my sign rebranded on my other arm if I lost this one…" he trailed off. "I can give you a ride into town if you want captain," Diane offered. "No, I'm good. Thanks though." Meliodas offered the giant a small smile.

"Ruin is gone?" Alfie asked of Ban, her eyes wouldn't meet his. " Yeah," her companion assured. " Then who's the missing knight?" the pinkette asked. "Friesia. Wears pink armor, looks like a giant bug." Ban explained plainly. Aelfryth hummed in acknowledgment, taking Jericho's sword out of its sheath, "Does she use bugs to attack too?" she questioned. "Yeah, why?" Ban asked but then got an answer.

"Oh. Yeah that would be from her." he confirmed upon seeing what was coming for them. Over in the distance, a swarm of insects was heading straight for the group of six with the image of their summoner being hidden behind the thick mass of bugs. " How thick is her armor?" Alfie's hand erupted with magic and covered Jericho's sword. " No thicker than usual." Ban considered. "Good." Alfie adjusted her grip on the sword as if she were to throw a spear.

"You owe me a beer if I hit her." the pinkette smirked lightly before winding her arm back and threw the sword forward with a small grunt. The magic coated blade cut through the air like a knife through butter, the swarm of bugs it cut through parted clear in half in a similar fashion. Together, Ban and Alfie waited in anticipation to see if the sword had its intended target.

"Those damn sins," Friesia cursed, waving her whip around her head as she summoned more bugs from her spot on top of a cliff in the distance. "They're ruining everything!" she growled in frustration, not sensing her impending doom headed right for her through her distracted ramblings.

"That bastard of a fox killed Jude, got free with the help of that pink haired bitch, they destroyed the prison, sent Golgius packing and killed Ruin too! I'm going to-!" Friesia cut herself off with a loud gasp. The holy knight had caught sight of a streak of blue energy cut through her precious swarm.

"O-oh no!" she stuttered and turned to run away but didn't get far before she was taken by the explosion of energy that errupted from the sword upon contact with the ground where the knight used to stand.

Upon the death of their summoner, the swarm of bugs dropped dead mid flight. Something that Alfie took great pleasure in considering she was merely estimating where she assumed Friesia had been. "AHA!" Aelfryth jumped once in joy and quickly burst into a fit of laughter, "Damn I'm good!" she continued to laugh, her pleasant mood rubbing off on the fox sin. "Nice shot. Guess I owe you a beer." the man chuckled, the duo high fiving and clasping their hands together momentarily before seperating.

"That was amazing and all." Meliodas' voice gained their attention, Elizabeth and Hawk's eyes had comically whited out in a large contrast to Meliodas and Diane who looked on in complete indifference at the pink haired woman's actions. "But do you think we can go back to Dalmally or at least go to the tavern to get my arm sewn back on?" Meliodas tilted his head to the side slightly.

"You've had worse than a torn off arm before, Captain. Don't be a wuss." Ban waved a hand, though a smirk played at his lips. Lightly coating her hand in magic, Alfie held it out behind her expectantly - summoning the apprentice sword back to her person. "What can be worse than a torn off arm?" Hawk wondered.

"Hm?" Ban blinked in confusion. " Who said that?" he wondered. "Hawk did." Alfie supplied, throwing a glance over her shoulder and seen that her sword was on its way. "Who's Hawk?" Ban asked. "I am!" the pig in question yelled. Looking down, the blue haired man stared blankly down at Hawk for a few seconds before promptly freaking out.

"What the hell?! When did a talking pig get here?!" Ban asked incredulously. "You mean you haven't noticed?" Diane frowned. " How haven't you noticed, I've been here the entire time!" Hawk exclaimed.

"Wait, wait, wait. I got it." Ban somewhat calmed down as his rational side kicked in. "You're King aren't you? You were cursed and turned into a pig." he simpered, Alfie's sword finally returned to her grasp and returned it to its' sheath. "King's dead apparently, that can't be him." Diane informed the fox. "So that really is a talking pig?" Ban pointed a finger to the farm animal. "Pretty much." Meliodas nodded.

"But be warned." Hawk spoke up and abruptly tackled Ban to the ground, "I am no ordinary pig," Hawk snorted into Ban's face, tapping a hoof into his chest. "I am sir Hawk, Captain of the Order of Scraps Disposal!" the pig said proudly. "Wooaah." Ban gaped, "I've never heard of that order before." he admitted. Alfie huffed a laugh and shook her head in exasperation, leave it to Ban to take a talking pig so seriously.

Although, if asked, she would be lying if she said she felt fine after the battle with Meliodas that escaped her memory. The captain had gotten his licks in on the chief but none stuck around thanks to Alfie's superior healing factor. If the woman was to be honest with herself, that battle had stirred up a restless feeling within. A craving to spill more blood.

His blood specifically. A feeling that she hadn't felt in regards to the dragon sin in **_many_ **years.


	4. Chapter 4

"WAKE UP YOU LAZY BUMS, COME GET YOUR BREAKFAST!"

"That was a beautiful wake up call, Hawk." Alfie smirked weakly, resting her cheek against a closed fist. "Why thank you." the pig beamed proudly. It was the rare occasion when Aelfryth threw together enough food for everyone and according to Hawk, it was not acceptable to miss out on. "Make sure they eat, Hawk," the woman then pushed herself off the stool and headed for the front door.

"Where are you going?" the animal asked confused. "Just for a little walk." Alfie threw a hand over her shoulder before leaving the tavern. "You want me to come with you?" Diane asked the moment the door had closed behind Alfie, having overheard the conversation.

The pink haired woman had even found some wild deer to cook up for Diane earlier in the morning when everyone was asleep and the giant had been pleasantly surprised and delighted to partake in the meal prepared for her. The deer remains at Diane's fee told Alfie that much at least.

"No it's okay. I won't be long." the pinkette assured her friend. "Morning Momma Hawk." Aelfryth then threw down to the giant green pig carrying them all. Momma Hawk gave a snort of greeting to the woman before she had launched off the pig's back and landed with a thud on the ground.

 _"I'll rip you apart! Give me your flesh, I want to taste it!"_

Aelfryth shook her head violently at the abrupt thought that hit her and quickened her pace into the forest. _"I'm going to bathe in your blood, Meliodas!"_ Alfie used the palm of her hand in order to hit herself repeatedly in the head. "Get it together." the woman cursed herself. _"You're going to pay for crossing me...you have no idea who you're dealing with!"_ Aelfryth jumped over a fallen tree with clenched teeth, the vegitation around the woman thankfully had long been sheltering her from prying eyes.

 _"I don't care how many you hide behind or who has to die...I'll kill you!"_ The woman's fingers twitched involuntarily. _"You will die a million times over by my hand before I ever consider my vengeance to be fulfilled!"_ Stopping in her tracks, the tiger sin remained motionless as the wind blew her hair around aimlessly.

 _"I won't let you forget. In my own time I will take back what's mine, for you are not my friend, Meliodas!_ " ever so slowly did Alfie lower herself onto the lush green grass below after this last thought reared its head in her mind, leading the woman to bring her knees to her chest and wrap her arms around them.

"So much time has passed since then." she whispered to herself. Now that she thought about it, how many years had she been alive? How many of them had she spent so bitter? How many has she wasted getting revenge on whoever crossed her? It was all a blur.

Aelfyrth was exacting revenge on others before the deadly sins even formed." Three thousand years." the woman uttered subconsciously. Alfie was certain she was cursed. Doomed to suffer. Three thousand years of revenge seeking….the realization of that made the woman scoff out loud. She wasn't even supposed to have lived this long. She was human...mostly anyways. "Yet here I am." Alfie muttered in distaste.

Every last person who had wronged her was cut down. Hundreds of thousands died curtesy of the tiger sin. There was no human,fairy, wizard, giant or demon who lived to tell the tale of surviving Aelfryth's vengence. The only one who still lived was Meliodas.

He was like a mold. Everytime she supposedly killed him, he came back time and time again just in different locations. Everytime he appeared, he had a stupid grin on his face.

 _"Hey Alfie, how's it going?"_

How could he continue to go on as if she hadn't destoryed his life at every turn? How could he still sit there and smile at her? City after city, friend after friend, lover after lover...she destroyed them all in front of his very eyes. Yet he still welcomed her. Still sought her out as if she hadn't committed said atrocities. What did he want from her?

But then again, did it matter?

Alfie was convinced that she couldn't die until Meliodas met the true death, and after three thousand years of trying - the woman was beginning to believe that he was immortal to some degree like Ban. "I really am doomed to suffer." Aelfryth said miserably as she continued to look at nothing in particular.

 _'Fucking Meliodas'_ Alfie sighed deeply, closing her eyes.

Lady Alfie….?"

"Hey, Al…?"

"Alfie, where the heck are ya?!"

"You around here, Alfie?"

Eyes snapping back open, Alfie heard her friends calling out for her. "I'm telling you, she's this way!" Hawk's voice sounded close. "My nose never lies, I can sniff out anything." the pig gloated. It sounded really close. "Is that true?" Ban could be heard asking in awe. "From what I've seen so far, it is. Sir Hawk's nose is rather impressive. If he says she's this way then I'm sure she is" Elizabeth's gentle voice replied just as she and the others broke out of some shrubbery and into the open.

"And what an impressive nose it is." the pinkette said, startling Hawk and Elizabeth more than the others."HA!" Hawk cheered happily, bouncing back quickly. "I told you I could find her." he hummed, incredibly pleased with himself.

"I'll never doubt you again, Master." Ban flashed a smile down at the pig. "What's the deal Al? We've been waiting for you - we're ready to head out." the blue haired man then told her. "I've only been gone for a few minutes, I didn't think you guys would be done eating so fast." Alfie defended herself with a small shrug..

"A few minutes?" Hawk echoed dubiously. "Uh...lady Alfie. You've been gone longer than an hour." Elizabeth said hesitantly. "An hour?" Aelfryth said surprised, frowning lightly. She had forgotten how time worked differently when she retreated into her own head.

A few minutes there meant an hour out in the real world. "My bad." the pinkette bid,pushing herself to her feet. "Let's get going...we're headed to the Necropolis right?" Alfie walked past everyone and headed back towards the tavern without meeting anyone's gaze. "You okay?" Ban quirked a brow. "Right as rain." Alfie threw a small smile over her shoulder without stopping.

"I don't think she's okay." Hawk uttered, staring after the pink haired woman with the others. "Don't worry guys, I'll handle this." Meliodas grinned confidently, prancing up to Aelfryth in a rather feminine manner. However, the dragon sin couldn't of been next to the tiger sin for longer than three seconds before Aelfryth abruptly back handed Meliodas and sent him crashing through many of the forest trees. "Sir Meliodas!" Elizabeth gasped, running after the blonde.

 _Get him while he's down!_

Alfie's brow furrowed heavily, shutting her eyes and attempting to block out the thought.

Ban blinked in surprise at Aelfryth's violent actions and Hawk began trembling, sweating bullets. The fox sin hesitated but he steadily closed the distance between he and his friend. "You're not going to hit me too are you?" Ban semi joked still an arm's reach away, he didn't want to risk being back handed like Meliodas had if he got too close. Hawk made sure to remain behind Ban, intending on using the man as a meat shield.

"No." Alfie answered simply, smirking lightly when she could still sense a bit of wariness from the blue haired man next to her. "So what was the deal with breakfast? You never cook." Ban shoved his hands into the pockets of his new red leather outfit.

The woman's face contorted into one of confusion and she looked over at the taller man. "That's what your worried about?" Alfie huffed. "No, not really." Ban informed, "But I also have no intention on getting hit if I do ask what's crawled up your butt." he admitted aloofly.

Ban didn't know about Aelfryth. He didn't know that she was well over three thousand years old or not that she wasn't human. Alfie most certainly doubted he knew Meliodas was the farthest thing from human too.

"I just had an urge to hit something and he was the closest thing near me." she lied, earning a long look from Ban because of it. The guy's first set of words may as well have been some kind of lie, there was no lying to a man like Ban. "If you don't want to tell me then fine, but don't lie to me." he grumbled. A muscle in Alfie's face twitched, their whole friendship may as well be based on a lie. "Did you eat?" she asked instead. " The others did but I had a beer." Ban drolled.

"Without me?" the woman whined, "Mannn~" she sighed in disappointment. "Hey…" her companion suddenly said. "What do you know about the Necropolis?" he asked. "About as much as the next guy." Aelfryth admitted, "I heard that a person's memories are needed to call forth the spirits of the dead when you get there but I don't know how true that is." she shrugged.

"Looking to talk to someone again?" Alfie then wondered. "More like looking to avoid." Ban grumbled much to the woman's confusion. Unlike any of the other sins, Alfie knew Ban didn't have many connections in the world outside of the sins. There was a woman he mentioned once or twice in a drunken haze but Aelfryth didn't know what had happened to her.

"Do you think the Necropolis is haunted?" Hawk asked nervously, "Dark and gloomy all day with rows and rows of creepy creeps?! What if we get there and King is dead?" the pig fired off rapidly. "Then we move onto the next sin?" Alfie ended her statement as a question.

"Do you think he's six feet under?" the blue haired man then asked. "I don't know." Aelfryth admitted, "We're only going off of rumor here that he is." They had finally come back upon Momma Hawk and Diane again. "Momma!" Hawk chirped, running towards his mother merrily. The larger pig lowered her snout down to Hawk's and snorted a puff of air into his face lovingly.

"Hey!" Diane grinned, relieved at the sight of Alfie. "There you are, we were all worried about you Chief." the giant relayed squatting down low to the ground. "Sorry about that, I got lost in thought is all." Alfie chuckled lightly. "Hey, where's Elizabeth and the captain?" Diane then asked, noticing their absence. "Well Al' here knocked the hell out of Meliodas back in the forest so the princess went to go get him back on his feet." Ban explained with ease.

"So they're together….alone…..?" Diane's brow twitched in annoyance. "Why? Are you jealous, Diane?" Ban teased with a toothy grin but was quickly punched into the ground by the giant. "Awe come on, Diane, you know he was just playing around." Alfie looked up at her friend.

"There's no shame in being jealous." she continued. "I'm not jealous!" Diane shouted in defiance, bringing her hands up to her chest. Grunting, Ban slowly pulled himself out of the crater he had been hit into and stumbled to his feet. "Alright, alright, so you're not jealous." he conceded. "...Does that mean you're _envious_?" the fox grinned, all too pleased with his word play.

Aelfryth barked out a laugh that practically became an airy wheeze. "I don't care what anyone says." she laughed, "That was funny." Ban smiled and chuckled along with the pink haired woman, though Diane was a blushing mess and wasn't as amused. "You two are practically made for each other." the brunette sneered lightly. "Who's made for who?" Meliodas' voice sounded, causing his group to look over and watch he and Elizabeth emerge from the forest.

 _'Fucking kill him!'_

"Quiet." Alfie hissed lowly with a turn of her head, eyes sliding closed and pressing two fingers to her the center of her forehead. "What was that, lady Alfie? Are you feeling okay?" Elizabeth asked. "I'm fine, doll face." the tiger sin forced a smile after a moment, opening her eyes and dropping her hand before turning back towards the group. "Let's go Momma!" Try to get us a bit closer to the village, yeah?" the pinkette cast upwards towards the giant pig who carted them around everywhere.

Groaning in agreement, Momma Hawk stomped a hoof in anticipation. Alfie jumped onto the pig's back, shortly followed by Meliodas, Elizabeth, Ban and Hawk. With the Boar Hat inhabitants on her back, Momma Hawk began walking closer towards their destination, Diane walking by the pig's side with ease.

What Alfie wasn't expecting was Hawk to come sniffing up her side. " Uhhh, whatcha doing there, Hawk?" the woman asked with a blink. "You smell weird." the pig stated. "Now that's a bit rude, don't you think Master?" Ban frowned lightly. "It's not a bad smell!" Hawk hurriedly said, "It's just more. You smell like more you...it's hard to explain." he frowned.

"Mind if I take a whiff?" Meliodas' coy voice sounded and the blonde suddenly popped up out of thin air, sniffing at the pinkette as well. Aelfryth's eye twitched before she lashed out a hand with intentions of sending Meliodas straight off Momma Hawk's back. The dragon sin tensed at the feeling of an incoming attack and quickly captured her wrist with his hand in order to avoid another hit without even looking in that direction.

"Boy you sure are riled up and violent today." He commented lightly. "What's got you so tense?" Meliodas wondered. The re-awakening of some rather violent and bitter thoughts for one. "Mmmm, feeling a bit restless is all." Alfie supposed, which wasn't entirely a lie.

The thoughts stirring in her mind were like a caged wild animal. It was exhausting to have to chase them away. "Restless?" Diane frowned, "You just ripped the captain's arm off in a fight not too long ago. Are you really itching for another fight?"

Yes. Yes she was.

Alfie's face remained neutral as she held her hands up in a what-are-you-gonna-do fashion. "What can I say? It really got the blood pumping, you know?" the pinkette simpered, throwing a small wink down at the blonde whose perverted mind ran a mile long with its implications.

" Well I know of a few things that we could do to release some of that tension." The man wiggled his eyebrows suggestively with an all too eager look in his eye. Hearing this, Ban tensed and glared at the shorter male heatedly, a possessive feeling overcoming him. "No" Aelfryth said plainly, much to Meliodas' disappointment. "How do you sleep next to him, Elizabeth?" the pinkette then turned to the princess.

"Tied up with rope" Hawk supplied and Aelfryth believed the pig to be joking, but when he didn't snicker, she knew he told the truth. "Really?" Alfie asked incredulously. "Well of course!" Hawk said as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "If I didn't then he would have more hands than a teenage octopus as he laid in bed with Elizabeth! Precautions must be taken!" he exclaimed.

" In a foreplay perspective, it's not so bad." Meliodas said lightly. "Jeez you need to get laid." the pinkette deadpanned. "Offer still stands." the blonde sang. "And my answer is still no." Alfie said simply before turning to Elizabeth , "We could put the boys in one bed if you want." she offered. "Eh?" Ban blinked, "No way! I'm not giving up my bed." he argued. " Technically it was mine and Elizabeth's." Alfie said dryly, looking to the theif who had snatched away the princess' bed during his first day with the group.

There were two rooms in the Boar's Hat. One was Meliodas' and the other originally belonged to Aelfryth, but when Elizabeth came into the picture the older woman had surrendered her room to the princess and took to sleeping in the attic. However Elizabeth didn't get long in the room before Ban promptly kicked her out of it and left her no choice but to bunk with Meliodas.

"The point still stands," Ban waved off the technicality, " Why can't we just keep tying him up every night? Why do we all have to be punished for his grabby little hands?" he asked. "Grabby little hands?" Meliodas echoed confused, looking down and flexing his fingers. "Oh no it's quite alright, lady Alfie!" Elizabeth spoke up. "I don't mind sharing with sir Meliodas." she assured.

"Promise?" Aelfryth pressed. "Promise." Elizabeth nodded with a smile, leaving the pinkette to drop the issue. "Speaking of which," Ban spoke, "Where exactly do you sleep?" he asked, yawning afterwards. Most nights he usually drank himself until he passed out and Meliodas usually had to carry him up to bed. "In the attic. Gives me and Diane some girl time late at night." the tiger sin shrugged.

"The attic?!" Ban repeated incredulously, " Well what the hell Al'?" he rubbed the back of his head, "I don't bite and I certainly don't grope like the kid over there, we can share a bed. Especially since it was originally yours." he pointed out. "It's no big deal," the blue eyed woman brushed off, reaching out and playing with Elizabeth's green locks. "I wanna play with your hair. Can I play with your hair?" Aelfryths randomly asked.

The abruptness threw Elizabeth off at first but the princess quickly grinned merrily. "Of course ! I haven't had anyone play with it in so long, I've missed the feeling." The royal said wistfully. "Come on then," Alfie nudged the delicate woman jovially, "to the attic we go. Let's have a little girl time until we reach the Necropolis" the tiger offered, walking off without waiting for a response.

"Oh, I can't wait ! Come on Hawk!" Elizabeth followed after the soldier and called out to the pig as well. "Coming!" The animal chirped. "Give us a second and we'll be up there soon, Diane!" Alfie called right as she disappeared into the tavern. "Okay!" Diane called back and adjusted herself to be level with the attic window that she and Alfie spent most nights conversing at.

With the girls, and Hawk, successfully distracted - it left Ban and Meliodas alone in an awkward silence. "Uh...what just happened? Since when does Al' like to play with hair?" Ban asked Meliodas.

"Beats me." the blonde rubbed the back of his head just as confused. A moment of silence surrounded them until Meliodas broke it. "Wanna drink until we reach our destination?" he offered, causing a grin to break out across the fox's lips. "Now you're speaking my language, captain." he chuckled along side the blonde as the duo headed into the tavern themselves.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0.o0o.0o..0o.0o.0o.

 _'He's just outside, let's get him!'_

Alfie shut her eyes tightly and held her head in her hands, elbows resting against the bar counter downstairs. These thoughts of hers hadn't let up in the least lately despite the pinkette smothering Elizabeth or Diane with attention so she wouldn't have to look at Meliodas. She was tired of it.

' _Those were the days though, weren't they? Tearing each other apart limb from limb until we could fight no more.'_

"Stop it." Alfie hissed harshly, grasping her head with both hands and lowering her head further and further until it rested on the bar counter. "Are you okay, Alfie?" Hawk's voice sounded seconds later, causing the pinkette's head to snap back up nearly immediately.

Looking over her shoulder Alfie flashed a little smile down at the pig who looked very concerned for his friend, "Morning Hawk," her elbows came to rest on her knees as she reached down half heartedly to pay the top of his head. It was morning wasn't it? Alfie gave a quick glance to the window but to no avail, it was cloudy outside. "I'm doing okay." she said.

"Are you sure?" Hawk asked tentatively and was met with a nod. "Well good, because we've reached our destination." on que, Momma Hawk came to a stop and snorted loudly, signalling their arrival as Hawk had said.

"We're heeeeeere!" Meliodas' excited cry sounded from outside. "Just between us." Hawk started as Aelfryth pushed herself to her feet and headed for the door, " We are in the right place, right? I mean just look at these houses. How could this be the Necropolis?" the pig wondered about the run downstate of the village. "Well, it's not. This is just the place closest to it." Alfie said as they exited the tavern.

"There you two are!" Meliodas' chirped at their arrival. "We were just getting down to business." the blonde beamed. Aelfryth held back a wince when a fresh wave of violent thoughts hit her. "We're setting up here and trying to get information on King and the Necropolis." Meliodas explained.

Alfie blinked and looked at him strangely as he continued on. He really expected to get information from this place? "Diane is going to be our jumbo billboard girl, Ban will be our jailbird cook and Aelfryth is going to head into town to do some snooping around" Meliodas finished.

Ban raised his hand half heartedly, "Can I trade with Al'?" he asked. "No." Meliodas said simply, leading the man to groan in disappointment. "What am I looking for exactly?" Alfie wondered. "Anything that sticks out. Who knows maybe you'll even spot Gowther? This is a rather remote area with a forest after all." Meliodas gestured to the dense population of trees surrounding the little village.

"Huh?" Ban blinked, "Gowther's supposedly here too?" he asked confused. "I have no idea, all we know is that he's been spotted hanging out in areas like this. Just taking a shot in the dark really." Meliodas smiled up at his friend, "Now let's get going people, chop-chop!" he clapped his hands together.

"But sir Meliodas, what am I going to do?" Elizabeth asked. "You can help wipe down the tables and counters for the customers, Ban - the pantry's out back." Meliodas then directed towards the fox sin. Aelfryth heavily doubted there would be anything of interest in the village but nevertheless she departed with the group to do as directed, back flipping off of Mama Hawk as she did so.

Ban frowned a bit envious of the pinkette, watching as she jogged towards the town. He wanted to go with her, not cook. Casting a look towards his blonde captain, Ban pursed his lips and did exactly that. Heading towards the kitchen as to not rouse suspicion in Meliodas, Hawk or Elizabeth, the fox sin slipped out the back door and hurried towards the last direction he seen the pinkette heading in.

Considering Alfie hadn't broken out into a run and hadn't been traveling for that long anyways, Ban had nearly caught up with the woman not too far from the entrance of the village with ease.

"Al!" Ban called out to the woman's shapely figure. However she didn't turn around. "Hey Alfie!" he tried again but still received no response. Tsk'ing under his breadth, Ban sprinted the short distance to her side and nudged the woman upon arrival. "Hey, Al what the hell? I was calling for you." he complained immediately, walking by her side now.

He got nothing.

"Aelfryth?" Ban then said soberly, resting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her to a stop. The woman blinked, snapping out of her warring thoughts when she felt herself being grabbed. "Ban?" the pinkette said questioningly. "What are you skipping out on work for?" Alfie wondered. "The captain's got a couple screws loose if he thinks I'm going to be cooking for no reason. We don't even know if this town is occupied...but that's not what I'm worried about." the towering man frowned.

A frown that Alfie mimicked curiously. "I'm worried about you. You good?" Ban's head tilted to the side as he asked this. "Yeah I'm fine." the tiger said with slightly widened eyes. "Then why haven't you been answering me, been trying to get your attention." Ban shoved his hands into his pockets. "...My bad." Alfie said finally, walking once more with her companion on following a second later.

Exhaling in defeat, Ban held his hands behind his head as they walked. "Soooo….~" he trailed off awkwardly, much to Aelfryth's amusement. "Yes?" Alfie quirked a brow. "Are we going to pretend like you aren't avoiding the hell out of the captain?" Ban's question effectively dispeled Alfie's humor. "Damn it Ban," she cursed, throwing a glare his way. "Why would you bring it up if you knew it was a sore topic-not that it is" the woman said.

"My ass." Ban rebuked, "You've been a ghost around the tavern. Ever since that little girl's night you, Hawk, Diane and the princess had - you've hardly come down from the attic anymore. And it's not like I can get anything out of them either, every time I mention it they clam up. " he pointed out. "And?" Alfie failed to see the point. "And?!" Ban huffed bewildered, " we never have secrets between us before, why start now?" he said with a furrowed brow.

Aelfryth's annoyed glare didn't lessen in his direction but when something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye, the glare faultered. Up ahead, leaning against a crumbling archway was a small blonde child wearing a yellow dress. The disagreemen between friends was

forgotten in that moment as the pinkette and her companion cautiously walked up to the child. "Excuse me, little girl?" Alfie called out. The dark blonde little girl turned her head to Alfie, revealing her face to the sins. Her face was plump and her eyes were a dull brown, in fact to the older woman, it didn't seem like the girl was all there. Aelfryth managed a tilt of her head before the girl suddenly face planted into the ground.

"Now you did it." Ban uttered half heartedly. "I really did." Alfie frowned, approaching the child and kneeling down next to her. Ban had scooped the child into his arms and supported her head gently. "Hey." Alfie nudged the girl carefully, "you okay?" Aelfryth tried though the child remained motionless. "Hellooooo~?" the pinkette took the ends of her hair and dusted them over the blonde's nose. As expected, her nose twitched twice threateningly before a sneeze escaped past her lips. "There we go, that's better" Ban hummed relieved.

The child's eye lids fluttered momentarily before finally opening fully to reveal brown orbs once again. "Morning sunshine." Aelfryth teased, a slight blush dusting the girl's cheeks. "Hey!" a new voice joined the conversation. A handful of feet away stood a brown haired boy dressed in clothes too big for him and weilded a pitch fork. "What do you think you're doing with Ellen? Get your hands off my sister!" he demanded.

"Woah, woah, easy there boss." Alfie held her hands up in surrender for her and Ban both. "No need to get so tense, we were only trying to help." she frowned lightly. The duo looked a bit thin if she had to be honest with herself. "You guys want to get something to eat?" Alfie asked as Ellen worked herself to her feet, using the larger form of Ban for support.

"My friend here is pretty good in the kitchen, he can whip you guys up something to eat if you want." the woman offered with a small smile. "Food?" Ellen whispered hopefully, looking at the two adults with glistening eyes before she locked her gaze onto her elder brother pleadingly.

Wincing, the older boy hesitated for a long moment before hesitantly stabbing the pitchfork into the ground. "W-well alright, I guess." he agreed reluctantly. "If your sister's name is Ellen, then what's yours?" Alfie asked kindly. "My name's Luigi, what's yours?" the boy supplied and then asked.

"Call me Alfie." the pinkette winked,rising to her feet in tandem with the fox sin at her side. "This over grown bastard next to me is Ban" she introduced good naturedly. "Hey~" said man purred with a smirk and small wave.

"It's nice to meet you!" "..Yeah…" the two kids replied with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Flashing a kind smile, Alfie turned to her friend and began to whisper up to him. "Take 'em to the tavern while I keep looking around." she instructed. "Huh?" Ban looked confused. "You heard what I said." Alfie admonished. Ban blinked and merely held out a closed fist over the palm of his other hand pointedly.

Rock, papper, scissors to see if he would do what she asked. Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Aelfryth obliged and the duo quickly engaged in the game.

 _RockPaperScissorsShoot_!

"Damn it!" Alfie exclaimed loudly, causing Ban to laugh heartily. His scissors and beat her paper with ease. "Better luck next time, huh Alfie?" Ban chuckled, throwing an arm over her shoulder and brought her into his side good naturedly, locking her in securely.

"Best two out of three." the woman requested as she was led forward, Luigi and Ellen set off in front of the two adults. "No, no, no none of that. I won fair and square." Ban grinned cheekily. "You cheated." the tiger said childishly. "I think you're just a sore loser. How can anyone cheat at that game?" Ban humored her.

Aelfryth opened her mouth to respond but then temporarily froze when she caught a breif blip of a prescence lurking behind them. When she paused, she too caused Ban to stop walking as well. "What's wrong?" Ban muttered lowly to his friend who was now looking over her shoulder and glaring at nothing in particular consisting of the run down village remains. His brow continued to deepen its' furrow when the pinkette flared her magical aura warningly at whatever had caught her attention.

"...Nothing I guess." Alfie answered quietly after a moment. "You sure?" Ban pressed, his grasp on her tightening as he too cast his gaze out at the area behind them - searching for what ever had out the woman on edge. "For now at least." the woman nodded her head, ignoring the increased hold he had on her. "Miss Alfie, Mister Ban! Is something wrong?" Ellen's voice caught their attention, snapping them out of their daze.

Returning their focus onto the children, the tiger and fox realized just how far the children had gotten ahead of their older counter parts since they had only now noticed that they had stopped walking. Alfie forced herself to give a small smile and wave a hand to show that everything was alright and the siblings were okay to keep on going.

"Do you know what it was?" Ban questioned as they followed after the children. " No but whoever it was knows how to hide their presense well, whatever distracted them is probably the only reason why I sensed them in the first place." Alfie informed. "Well, it'd be their mistake to make a move on us." Ban grumbled darkly. "I agree." his beloved companion murmured, finally returning his gesture and wrapping an arm around his waist.

With the two sins successfully turning their attention away from what lurked behind them, a boy like figure was able to finally step out from behind some rubble of a ruined house. "How annoying, the rumors are true after all." he simpered, the wind blowing his short brown locks of hair around.

"Ban's been released from prison and Aelfryth is with him and the others….powerful as ever too. What a pain. This is going to make things a lot harder than they need to be" he growled with narrowed eyes, his grip on his spear tightened so much that it began to shake.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"Mmmmm no one's coming." Diane pouted, falling onto her butt in defeat, "And I thought I was doing such a good job too." she sighed in disappointment at her failure to bring in any customers from the village.

"What's gotten you so pouty?"

Diane perked up and turned her head to see Alfie and Ban standing below with a couple of kids. "Chief, you're back!" the giant greeted happily, resting her upper body down on the ground while her behind stuck in the air.

"Hello to you too Diane." Ban muttered sarcastically. "And you brought kids?" the giant tilted her head curiously at the siblings, ignoring the blue fox. "I promised them a meal since they look like they could use it. It gives us something to do at least." the woman simpered, still tucked into Ban's side.

"Diane, meet Ellen and Luigi." Aelfryth said to the giant. "Hi there! Aren't you two a couple of cuties!" Diane trilled merrily. "So pretty~!" Ellen beamed, grabbing her brother by the arm and shook him. "Look, Lui! It's a giant like in mom and dad's stories!" the little blonde said excitedly. Diane giggled and waved her fingers at them charmingly.

"It sure is." Luigi blinnked a few times in awe, the duo still gaping at the giant as Aelfryth and Ban corraled them into the tavern. "Ah, Hello! Welcome to the-!" Elizabeth's cheery welcome was cut short when she spotted the young guests. "L-lady Alfie? Sir Ban? Who are they?" Elizabeth asked, Meliodas and Hawk also turned around to observe the children. "What's up with them? Meliodas asked with a pointed finger. "They're hungry." Alfie led Luigi and Ellen over to a table and sat them down.

"I tell you to keep an eye out on things and you come back with a couple of kids?" Meliodas asked, scratching the back of his head. "These kids are the only things left in this village,captain." Ban defended the pinkette, Elizabeth kneeling down to the young ones' height and speaking to them softly with a smile.

"That reminds me…" Meliodas trailed off as he looked to Ban for a hard second before suddenly appearing before him and boking the taller man on the head with a beer mug. "Ow" the blue haired man said plainly with a frown. "That's for running off after Alfie and skimping out on work." the captain said simply. "It wasn't really skimping out on work, I have to start cooking anyways." Ban shrugged and moved off towards the kitchen.

"So besides them, did you discover anything else?" Meliodas asked his pink haired chief. "Well...not really but I think if the Necropolis had to be anywhere then it is near by." Aelfryth admitted."You guys are trying to get into the Necropolis too?" Luigi asked, over hearing the conversation.

"What do you mean, too?" Diane asked from outside the tavern window. "There's a boy who hangs around here saying that he needs to get into the Necropolis and is always asking us questions but there's only so much we can tell him before our knowledge runs out on the matter" Ellen informed. "I thought you said that they were the only ones in the village?" Meliodas looked to Alfie.

"Oh we are." Luigi answered for the woman, " He just comes around pretty frequently." the boy said. "Do you know who he is?" Elizabeth asked but was met with dual head shakes. "No, but we can tell you what we've told him." the young boy said.

"The Necropolis is for the land of the dead. They say there are different ways to get in but the only way we know of is by presenting precious memories to the dead and then from there on they'll allow you into the capitol." Luigi recited. "But really even then it's not for certain that entry will be granted." Ellen spoke, " If the dead don't want you there then you won't be allowed in." she warned.

Entry isn't granted easily, huh? Aelfryth looked off to the side in thought. It was fair enough, spirits could be picky and if she had to force herself in then so be it. "So how do we get into a place where we won't be wanted?" Hawk asked the question hanging over everyone's head.

It was silent for a few moments before Aelfryth broke it with a sigh, "I think I may know a way to get in." she admitted slowly. "Huh? Really?" Diane asked, backing up temporarily when Alfie pushed open the window for her so the giant wasn't speaking through the glass.

"Well that's great, lady Alfie!" Elizabeth chirped excitedly, clasping her hands together. "We may be able to find sir King after all!" she smiled. "I said I can get in." the woman corrected, dampering the mood and causing many eyes to fall on her, "The rest of you will just have to wait until I return either alone or with King." Alfie stated. "Well hold on just a stinking minute." Ban called, appearing from the kitchen with four plates of food balancing on each of the length of his arms.

Hawk squealed, foaming at the mouth at the sight of such good looking and smelling food. Meliodas had to grab the large pig by his ear to keep him from charging into Ban and eating the food for himself.

"Why do you get to do all the dirty work?Alone at that?" the fox complained, setting the plates down before the children, Elizabeth struggled to keep her composure along with Hawk. She was used to Meliodas' horrid cooking but to have Ban's food flooding her senses - the princess couldn't blame the pig for his constant efforts to get to the food.

"Because I'll know what I'll be doing?" Alfie tried with a quirk of her brow but Ban only met her with an unhappy stare. "Which is what exactly?" Ban questioned, leaning against his closed fist on the table as the Luigi and Ellen dug into the food with fervor much to Hawk's dismay.

"Well if I told you it wouldn't be a secret now would it?" Alfie mimicked his actions and leaned in close. "And why does it need to be a secret?" the crimsion eyed man continued. "Because we can't have every person trying to pop into the Necropolis every hour of the day if they know how to get in." Aelfryth explained.

Narrowing his eyes, Ban and Aelfryth engaged in a miniature stare down until Meliodas spoke up. "I agree with Ban, you probably shouldn't go alone." the blonde said, causing a wide smirk to spread across Ban's lips and a frustrated scowl to go across Alfie's.

"Tch. Whatever." she scoffed with a jerk of her head and plopped down on chair, threw one leg over the other and looked away disinterestedly with a frown on her face. Sulking was the pinkette's admitted go to when she didn't get what she wanted.

"This guy you say that comes around a lot." Meliodas chimed. " What's he look like anyways?" he wondered. "Well he looks about your age," Luigi said around the food in his mouth " brown hair and eyes and he carries a big green pillow and a spear." multiple eyes widened at that between the snake, tiger, fox and dragon.

"That sounds like King!" Diane chirped merrily from outside. "So where is the tub of lard anyways?" Ban asked with a slight frown. "Well I don't know where he is now but he usually hangs around the edge of the village at the clearing. We can take you there if you'd like." Luigi offered. "Well that settles it, let's get to it then." Meliodas declared jovially, heading towards the door while Alfie remained seated.

"Let them eat." Alfie threw a cup at the blonde's head grumpily, pouting for a few more seconds before an idea hit her. Pushing herself to her feet, she wandered up behind Ellen and laid a hand atop of the little girl's head after making sure the others were thoroughly distracted by making the game plan to go to the Necropolis. "Just relax, sweet heart." she cooed when the girl twitched under her grasp.

"Do me a favor and don't say anything, just think about what we're looking for." Alfie whispered into the girl's ear, the palm atop of her head had then become enveloped in magic as she said this. Remaining calm, Ellen did as the blue eyed woman requested with ease - not paying any attention to the looks she gained from her brother.

Alfie loved her magical ability sometimes. It was so useful to have the thoughts of the child be revealed to her just because she willed it. After finding what she wanted, Alfie removed her hand and set off, patting Ellen's shoulder as she did so.

Slipping into the kitchen, Aelfryth snuck out the back door of the tavern and made her way towards he destination Ellen had pictured without so much as raising a single head of the others. "It really is too easy sometimes." Alfie shook her head in exasperation as she ran into the village.

"What's too easy?"

Aelfryth admittedly shreiked in fright at the sudden voice at her side, slowing down in the process. "Woah, take it easy scaredy cat." Melidoas chuckled, matching her pace. "Damn it Meliodas." Alfie cursed, holding a hand over her heart. "What the heck are you doing here, anyways?" Alfie asked, speeding back up. "You didn't really think I didn't notice you leaving after getting the information you needed from Ellen, did you?" the blonde grinned by her side.

"You may have been able to get away from the others, but you'll never be able to get rid of me." Meliodas proclaimed good naturedly as always. This caused an unhappy frown to fill the pinkette's face, turning to face forward once more. His statement had hit a little to close to home for the woman's liking. "You don't need to remind me." Alfie uttered.

Smile dropping, the dragon sin actually took on a expression that differed from his usual goofy and carefree one. Switching his trajectory, Meliodas successfully tackled the blue eyed sin - the force of the hit sending the two of them crashing through some houses and walls until they finally came to a stop in a pile of rubble and smoke. Coughing, Alfie took a moment to catch her breath that had been successfully knocked out of her.

"What the fuck is your problem?!" the woman demanded, beginning to push herself into a sitting position but was forced down immediately afterwards. Two calloused hands had her wrists pinned above her head as a smaller but powerful body sat atop of her. Steely green eyes bore down into Aelfryth's baby blue ones unrelenting. "Get off me." the woman growled lowly, tensing under his deceptively strong frame.

"What's the matter with you?" she demanded a second later. "I could ask you the same." Meliodas mumbled. "You just tackled me out of no where, you don't get to ask me that." Alfie said pointedly.

"You think I don't know when something's wrong with you, Aelfryth?"

The sudden use of her name effectively silenced the woman. "I know every thing about you. There's not a second of your life that I don't know. I know every thought that flows through your mind." his hand reached up and two fingers pressed into her right temple not to hard but firm enough for her to get the point.

" I know every inch of your body." one of her wrists had been freed so the dragon sin could drag his fingers down face and along the length of her body within reach. "And I know every emotion that you feel." his hand then reach up and rested over her heart.

"There's nothing you can hide from me." the distance of their faces were now incredibly close. The woman can feel every exhale of breath on her face that he took. "None of this should be surprising really considering how long we've known each other." Meliodas said softly. "I'll kill you." Alfie whispered, her eyes never wavering away from his own. "I know." the blonde answered.

" I'll tear you apart, limb from limb-"

"I know."

"And bathe in your blood-"

"I know"

"as your corpse rots away under the sun on the battle field-"

"I know"

"And kill anyone who gets in my way"

"I believe every word you say and have complete faith that you'll do it." Meliodas said genuinley, stroking the side of her face - his thumb rubbing the tiger symbol on her neck. "It's not like you haven't done it before." he chuckled humorously and then did something that he hadn't done in years…..

He kissed her.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.o0.

A/N: I promise the next chapter will be up a lot sooner! Thanks for reviews


	5. Chapter 5

Too many memories.

Painful and pleasurable.

Ones that increased her blood lust and ignited a flame in her lower belly.

" _~O-o-ohh Mel!~_

" _Come out and face me, Meliodas! Or will you continue to let your friends be slaughtered because of your cowardice?!"_

She had to make it stop. Her mind and body were at war with each other as the woman had returned his affections the man had descended down upon her but her mind was tearing itself apart because of it.

She had enough.…..

Yet her freed hand pulled him in for more, deepening the kiss.

Enough…

Meliodas released her other wrist and grasped her jaw in a possessive and dominating way, knowing the effects it had on the woman - smirking without fail when the woman beneath him began to rub her legs together to release some of the tension that had been building.

….Enough!

Biting down on his lower lip as hard as she could, Alfie reveled in the crimson metallic liquid that slunk into her own mouth in response from puncturing his lip with her teeth. Sucking in air, Meliodas jerked away sharply, throwing himself off of the woman and holding his sleeve to his mouth. However Aelfryth was all over Meliodas in an instant, pinning the small blonde underneath her and holding a blade to his throat firmly.

Staring up at her panting form, Meliodas couldn't resist the grin that stretched across his lips. "You're going to need more pressure than that If you're going to slit my throat." He said aloofly.

The pink haired woman narrowed her eyes and took the blonde's advice, pressing the blade down hard enough until blood pooled beneath the blade and ran down either side of his throat. "That's better." Meliodas praised. "You've doomed me to an eternity of suffering." Aelfryth murmured, her voice cracking with emotion. "Why won't you just die so I can too?" a tear rolled down her cheek, causing Meliodas to sober a bit.

"I wish I could." he murmured back to her, reaching up and brushing away a stray tear even though it caused the blade to sink further into his neck. "I hate seeing you suffer." the blonde haired captain said truthfully, "And I wish I could relieve you of your suffering...but I don't know how myself."

Huffing, Alfie increased the pressure a little more, the blade now buried in his flesh but she didn't jerk her arm to deliver the final blow. "Why won't you do it?" Meliodas asked. Before she could give an answer though, the duo heard the familiar voices of the others sounding in the near by distance. "Because they're near by?" the man asked. "That's never stopped you before….or is it because you know I'll come back anyways?" he wondered.

"Shut up." Alfie whispered, taking a moment to think to herself before removing her grip from the blade and sheathed the sword. Lifting a wrist to her mouth, Alfie bit into the flesh of her skin so hard that the skin broke and blood began pouring out. Lining up his neck with the leaking blood, Alfie watched as her blood and his mixed and merged with each other until the wound across his throat began to close and leave no trace of it being there outside of the blood stains on his skin.

Leaving the blonde to clean himself up. Alfie lifted herself off of his smaller frame and stood to her feet. She hesitated, but the woman ultimately offered a helping hand to the blonde using his sleeve to wipe the blood away.

Meliodas blinked at the sight but then soon his child like demeanor returned and he was all smiles and chuckles again as he usually was. Accepting the hand, Meliodas allowed the woman pull him to his feet and began to brush himself off. When the blonde had looked up, he had seen that Alfie wouldn't meet his eye.

"We're going to have to figure something out." he stated evenly. "The others are bound to catch on that something isn't right between us." he warned Aelfryth couldn't help the scoff that escaped her lips. "Yeah, Ban's already figured that much out." she informed. Lifting a hand to his chin thoughtfully, Meliodas began to think of possible solutions but his thoughts had been brought to a screeching halt when Alfie suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I suggest you either get me drunk off my ass from here on out or we find Gowther as soon as possible." she offered before moving off in the direction where she had last heard her companions. Wasn't that something. Despite her magical ability, Alfie couldn't use it against herself to free herself of the memories. "How come sleeping together is never an option?" Meliodas asked innocently, following after.

" Why are you always asking?" Alfie shot back. " Well, you were my first." the blonde said with a grin but was met with a deadpan look. "First human woman." Meliodas amended but when her expression didn't change, he kept going,

"First human woman hybrid"

….

"That I actually liked"

….

"Sober."

The pink haired woman's deadpan dropped enough to grant the man a huff of laughter and that's all he received, but Meliodas would take what he would get. "Don't kiss me anymore either." Alfie abruptly stated, suddenly remembering what had happened moments before. "It's only going to cause problems." she stated. "You weren't complaining just minutes before." Meliodas pointed out and got his cheek pinched in return.

"I said what I said, Meliodas." Alfie grumbled. "Alright, alright. I hear you." The blonde conceded, rubbing his cheek though the devious look in his eye didn't bother to disappear. It took a few seconds for the pinkette to actually take notice but once she felt wind drift in between the slit in her skirt, her eyes widened. "MELIODAS!"

The blonde haired captain leapt out of range of her back handed swipe with a hearty laugh and began to run away from the raging woman. "You cretin! When did you even take my underwear?!" Aelfryth demanded as she chased after the short male. "Don't pretend like it really bothers you~" Meliodas winked, dodging out of the way of a thrown sword.

Without pause, Alfie summoned the weapon back to her side and continued to chase after the blonde with no real idea on where he was going since she wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings. However when the man came to a sudden stop at the edge of the village, it was far too late for Alfie to slow herself and she inadvertently sent to two tumbling into a field of flowers. "Ouch" the woman hissed rubbing her head after she shoved Meliodas' frame off of her. "A little more warning next time, would ya?" she asked.

"You should pay more attention." Meliodas quipped in return, watching as Ban appeared behind the woman and helped her to her feet. Diane, Elizabeth and Hawk were approaching the field a bit behind the fox sin. "Well, I guess this cuts our search for you guys short." Ban said plainly. "Sir Meliodas, what's that on your sleeve?" Elizabeth asked once she reached his side, catching sight of the blood stain.

"Nothing to be too worried about, I just got some red dye on it earlier, that's all." Meliodas brushed off the concern. Ban and Hawk however, having the sharpest noses knew otherwise. They could smell the blood on his sleeve and while Hawk didn't notice Aelfryth's slight furrow of the brow in guilt - Ban did. Brushing herself off, Alfie casually looked around and blinked in surprise.

"Holy hell." she murmured, "This is it." the woman realized. "What's it?" Hawk asked. "This is the gate to the Necropolis." Alfie stated, recalling the image pulled from Ellen's declaration sent the group into a surprised state, all individually looking around curiously. "This is it? But there's nothing here." Diane frowned, twirling one of her pig tails. "Nothing but these flowers anyways." Hawk walked forward and sniffed at one pointedly.

"No, this is it." Alfie said for certain. "If that's true then all that's left is to share memories with the dead, that's what Ellen and Luigi said isn't it?" Elizabeth wondered. " That and hope the dead actually hopes they let us through." Ban mentioned pessimistically though a split second after the fox sin had said that, a whirl of wind and flower petals had enveloped the group to the point where they couldn't see outside the vortex anymore.

The group of five had been entrapped in the vortex for a good thirty seconds before it suddenly disappeared, depositing them into a world with a yellow sky and green crystals all over the place. "Well I guess that's that then." Meliodas blinked, taking in the environment. "Who triggered the gate to open I wonder." Elizabeth mused but instead listening for a reply, Alfie found herself tensing.

That same presence from before was with them and this time she wouldn't ignore it. Unsheathing Jericho's sword, Aelfryth threw then magic covered blade with ferocious strength at a crystal behind them. The strength of the throw had sliced the crystal clean in half and at the same time thoroughly gotten everyone's attention. As predicted, a small figure darted out from behind the crystal to avoid the attack and into the open, floating in the air.

"Who the heck is that?" Ban frowned with his hands shoved deep in his pockets. "How did he get here?" Hawk asked as well. "Hey wait a minute..." Diane said with narrowed eyes as she scrutinized the floating figure. "It's King! Hi King!" the giant greeted merrily. "If he's here, doesn't that mean he's dead?" Hawk attempted to whisper to Elizabeth but he had been heard by the others with ease.

Scoffing with a heavy frown, Ban shot down the possibility. "There's no way that scrawny brat is King. You may have never met him before master, but even you should at least have known that just by looking at his wanted poster." Ban chided. "But sir Meliodas doesn't look like his poster…" Elizabeth frowned.

The fairy like child watched with cold indifference to the conversation before him. Sliding his eyes over to the pink haired woman who had sensed him in the first place, "Your awareness to your surroundings is as annoying as always, Aelfryth." King said coldly. " You were always our eyes and ears back in the day, always watched our backs...a true friend and comrade"

The pink haired woman in question remained silent. " Or so I thought." King glared. "I've come to realize that you only were a friend when it suited you and I can tell that it hasn't changed a bit." he accused. "King, what are you talking about?" Diane questioned the fairy, upset at what he had said. "I don't know who you are you little punk, but listen up!" Ban jumped in, "You've got it all wrong about Al' and if you put her name in your mouth one more time, you're going to be sorry!" the fox snarled.

"If you were a true friend…" King continued to stare down Aelfryth, ignoring Ban. "You would of done something about the Fairy King's Forest all those years ago. I don't know where you went after we split up but the least you could of done was seek vengeance for all the innocent lives lost in that forest - plant and fairy alike. I know you must have heard about its' destruction and what was stolen right before its down fall." he stated as fact.

"And who would you have me go after in retribution?" Alfie finally spoke, slowly at that. "The man to blame of course." King answered, his spear flying into his grasp. "And he's closer than you think. In fact...he's standing right beside you." the brown haired fairy stated harshly. Aelfryth didn't bother to look over at Ban like the others did, she settled for continuing to frown at the floating fairy.

"Sir Ban had something to do with the destruction of the Fairy King's forest?" Elizabeth echoed, eyes concerned and confused. "But..." she trailed off unhelpfully, showing her hesitance to believe the accusation despite knowing the man for a short amount of time. "You got a big mouth kid," Ban now frowned unhappily. "And you talk about a lot of shit you don't know anything about." the glimmering red coloring of his fox like eyes narrowed into slits as he said this.

"On the contrary, I know all there is to know." King said plainly, the grip on his spear tightening. "The greedy human budded Ban the Theif destroyed the Fairy King's forest, killing the guardian of the fountain of youth and obtaining eternal life for himself as he drank from the fountain….I've always wondered about your immortality but I can't believe I never put the pieces together." King glared.

It was silent for a long moment as a sudden wind blew around through the group, rustling clothes and hair alike. "Knowing that, Aelfryth, the Tiger's sin of Revenge…" King broke the silence. " What will you do?" the fairy implored. Exhaling a deep breath of air with shut eyes, the pink haired woman held out a hand, magic coating it as she re-summoned the sword she had thrown at King earlier.

When the weapon flew into her hand, the others tensed momentarily when she rose it as if to strike at the man by her side but then relaxed when the blade went back into its sheathe. "Nothing. No wrong has been committed against me." Alfie told her old friend. "This beef, is between you and him." she then looked to King.

The fairy warrior was pissed to say the least. "I should of known better than to expect anything different out of you." King spat. "You always defended that despicable monster no matter what he did. You're just as bad as he is when you do that." Alfie frowned at this. "Now that wasn't nice." she murmured and was shocked when Ban was suddenly launching himself into the air after the floating fairy.

"I told you already kid, keep her name out of your mouth and shut the hell up already!" Ban yelled, attempting to back hand the brown haired runt out of the sky but the attack had been dodged eloquently, forcing Ban to make a landing atop a giant crystal. "You haven't changed a bit." King narrowed his eyes onto the blue haired male. "You always used to hit me out of the sky like that."

Hearing this, Ban inwardly realized that the kid really was the grizzly sin. How annoying. Before he could respond though, Ban found himself dodging out of the way of the floating spear with seemingly a mind of its own. The force of the spear shattered the crytal the man had previously been on before he leapt away - and continued to force the man to leap away in order to avoid being impaled.

"Hey! Cut it out you two!" Diane shouted annoyed but when the two males failed to cease their fighting, she turned sharply to the dragon and tiger. "Shouldn't you two at least try to stop them?" she asked irritated. "Mmmm...it looks like they have a score to settle like Alfie said earlier. I say we leave them to it." Meliodas proclaimed.

"But what if they go too far?" Elizabeth fretted, worrying about how angry the small brown faired boy seemed to be and his thirst for blood. "It's law, doll face." Alfie piped up, drawing attention."The fifth law of the sins to be specific. If two sins have a problem with one another then it is to be resolved with a fight. We stay out of it and return to the world of the living." she stated.

"King's out for blood though." Diane mentioned, the sounds of the duo fighting ringing in their ears in the background. "Doesn't matter, it's not like Ban can die." the pink haired woman stated. "But King can!" Diane cried, stomping a foot. "We have to stop them. It's law!" Diane threw the chief's words right back at her. "Law number six of the sins. If two sins are in a fight to the death then the others have to do all they can to stop the fight- even if it means killing the winning party." the giant recited.

"Then go break it up." the pinkette quipped. "Hawk, Elizabeth." she barked, "We're going back. We need you two out of the way, Ban and King can get out of control when they fight." Alfie said with little room for argument. "So soon?" a new voice joined the conversation, startling the group of five. Turning, they were greeted with the sight of a slim, black haired woman with a thin sword at her side and her eyes remained closed.

Her voice freaked Aelfryth out if she had to be honest, it was robotic. "It would be such a shame if you left so soon after I had just arrived." the woman said, holding a hand over her heart and bowing a bit. "My name is Guila, a crystal ranked holy knight and I've been searching far and wide for those known as the eight deadly sins. As you can see, I'd be willing to travel to the ends of the universe to find you." she smiled.

"Congrats." Alfie said flatly. "Thank you, much appreciated." Guila smiled and drew her blade, pointing the rapier at the group threateningly. "If I am correct then you three are Diane, Meliodas and Aelfryth. The serpent, dragon and tiger sins respectively with Meliodas and Aelfryth being the leaders of the group. I see that I've made quite the discovery." the smile on her face only grew though it faltered when Ban suddenly came crashing into the ground near the group.

"Oh?" Guila said curiously at the sight. "Ow." Ban grumbled, bloodied though there was no real concern for his well being since he was woundless. "You must be Ban the Undead, the Fox sin." Guila assumed, King arriving short after she said this. None missed how the fairy floated by the holy knight and made no move against her, and it wasn't hard to put the pieces together. King and Guila were allies...how annoying in the point of view of the tiger sin.

"Who the heck is she?" Ban asked, sitting up. "A holy knight." Meliodas supplied nonchalantly. "Oh. You gonna take her sword too Al?" Ban finally pushed himself to his feet. "Maybe." the blue eyed woman shrugged. "To my understanding, you've collected swords from a holy knight and an apprentice who you deem unworthy of them." Guila said, "I can assure you that is not the case with me. Would you like a demonstration?" she asked though she wasn't really seeking permission.

"Not really, but I feel like you're going to show me anyways." Alfie mused. "Indeed, please come at me with all you have. I've been looking forward to battling the rumored true leader of the deadly sins. " Guila beckoned the other woman forward with her free hand. "You know, I'm starting to sense a recurring theme here." Aelfryth scratched her cheek, pausing momentarily before plopping her butt against a crystal.

Not too long after she had done that, King and Ban had suddenly leapt back at one another, no doubt the fairy was the first to fly forward and it's what caused Ban to retaliate. With those two pre-occupied with one another, Alfie turned to the holy knight in particular and studied the dark haired woman for a long moment. "I have no interest in fighting." the pinkette declared honestly at the end of her evaluation.

"But we do," Meliodas grinned, jumping in front of Alfie with Diane on his heels. "So if you want to fight Alfie, you'll have to get through us first." he declared. "How inconvinient." Guila frowned momentarily before recovering. " But very well. I accept your challenge Meliodas and Diane of the eight deadly sins." she stated strongly.

That's all that was needed to be said before a battle commenced and Aelfryth had to admit that the black haired woman had some speed on her from the way she dodged and weaved around attacks sent at her by the dragon and serpent alike. She apparently had some strength behind her as well when Guila sent Meliodas soaring through the air with a well timed kick and surprisingly Diane was quick to follow only a few minutes into the fight.

"Oh wow" Alfie blinked in appreciation of the attacks. Not just anyone could send a giant flying. "Are you kidding me?!" Hawk squealed in disbelief at the sight as well, "Just how strong is this lady?" he wondered. "There. Now will you fight me?" Guila asked of the blue eyed woman. "Mmmmmm." Alfie pretended to think for a minute before ultimately shaking her head childishly and took off towards the direction Guila had sent her companions.

"Why will you not fight, Aelfryth?" Guila called not far behind the sin. "I attacked your comrades, my actions call for retaliation do they not?" she asked of the pinkette. "It can be considered so yes," Alfie acknowledged, she certainly had retaliated over less in the past. "But have no fear-I'll get my revenge sooner or later if not today." the woman assured, catching sight of Dane's hulking form on the ground up ahead.

"Get up, Diane. You're not hurt." Alfie said unsympathetically upon arrival. Sitting up, it had been revealed that Meliodas had been holding the giant up by his self in order to stop her from being impaled by a crystal from the looks of it. "Brutal as always, chief." Diane pouted, getting to her feet. "Hurry up and kick her ass, you two. Don't let her knock you around like that." Alfie hyped up the tag team fighters, Hawk and Elizabeth arriving not long after- the princess riding on the pig's back.

"Indeed." Guila joined in as she arrived before the group. "Let us finish this battle with most haste. I am eager to fight the tiger sin." she insisted. Glaring, Diane molded her hands into hand signs before slamming them into the ground. "Keep on dreaming, the cheif won't be fighting the likes of you." Diane said with a smirk, watching as Guila suddenly began sinking into the ground at a frightening rate.

"Oh?" Guila too noticed this and looked down to find herself sinking into a sand pit that materialized out of no where. "Is this an ability of the giant clan? Or of your own accord?" the knight asked.

"Of the giant clan. We can turn minerals into sand." Diane answered, watching as the knight was neck deep in sand now. "I see. Very informative." Guila managed to say before disappearing beneath the grainy material completely. The sins held their breath as they waited to see what happen in the next handful of seconds and none of them had been disappointed.

Guila burst forth from the trap, eyes widening - Diane broke off a chunk of crystal next to her and launched it at the woman. Without flinching, Guila brought her sword forth and set off an explosion in which the crystal shattered like glass. Meliodas was hot on the knight's tail though and attacked Guila straight out of the sky with relentless attacks.

When the duo had finally stopped jumping from crystal to crystal and exchanging blows, Meliodas had sent the woman onto the ground and dropped her onto a solitary knee - attempting to stave off the blonde with her brute strength and sword. "Why do you not use your sword, Meliodas? Your strength is quite formidible as they say but I am willing to bet it would be even greater with a blade." Guila noted factually before jumping away to create some distance between them before charging forward again.

"You want me to use my blade? Well okay, if you say so." Meliodas grinned as she approached, reaching back for his own weapon. Within seconds Alfie watched as Meliodas sent Guila's attack right back at her with the twice the power delivered though much to her surprise, Guila was able to shake it off as if it were nothing.

Impressive.

Narrowing her eyes on the dark haired knight, Alfie took it upon herself to interfere in the fight. "Hey!" Aelfryth's voice cut through the air, causing all to still in place and look to the woman. "Back off." the pinkette said, motioning to Meliodas and Diane with a hand, walking forward to approach Guila. "You're jumping in?" Meliodas asked at the same Diane gave a protest of her own. "But chief!"

" _Cht_!" Alfie shushed the duo and turned back towards Guila. "Four times." the woman declared, confusing Guila but Diane and Meliodas knew exactly what she was speaking about. "Better keep your distance." Diane trilled, barely managing to get out the warning before Alfie suddenly disappeared and reappeared infront of the female knight. Guila coughed up blood when she was struck in the gut by the tiger, her bare knuckles the culprit of the attack.

"One." Aelfryth's cold and detached voice resonated through the city of the dead and just as quickly as she had done before, the tiger struck the knight again but this time in a different spot - her left side in the upper chest area. "Two." Guila had never this type of pain before in her life, and the fact that she had been rendered into such a state with only two hits was mind boggling.

"Three" Guila braced for the third attack but it never came. Instead of dwelling on it, she collapsed onto her knees- the holy knight curled in on herself, holding her stomach and struggled for breath as she vomited up blood.

"What a shame." Alfie tisked. "If you were able to take Meliodas' full counter then I thought you would last past two hits. You're no different than any other holy knight who wants to fight me." she looked down at the woman disinterestedly. "That attack..." Elizabeth said with widened eyes, "It's the same one she used on Gilthunder and left him unable to move." she recalled. "It makes you wonder why she bothers to use swords when she can bring people down with only a couple of hits." Hawk commented as well.

"W-what did you-?" Guila began to ask through the pain. "What did I do?" Alfie assumed, holding her hands behind her back and bending at the waist to get a closer look at the woman. "Well your pancreas and left lung each took a crippling hit, it certainly would explain the pain in your gut and the difficulty to breathe wouldn't it?" the woman asked with a tilt of her head.

"If you can't fight your way through a little pain such as that then how do you expect to fight me seriously? Not at all from the looks of it." Alfie quirked a brow. Gritting her teeth, Guila tightened her grip on her sword and was quick to fire off an explosion straight to the woman's face despite the pain she felt in her frame. "Chief!" Diane cried. "Al!" Meliodas followed after, the duo waiting in suspension for the smoke to clear.

Once it did, the duo was surprised. There still Alfie in the same position as she was before Guila had attacked, "Oh my." the pinkette blinked, feeling a tingling sensation over come her frame in random locations where she was injured from the blast. "You've got a temper on you. Have I hit a nerve?" Alfie smirked as her healing factor kicked in right before the holy knight's eyes. It was a shame nothing could be done about her clothes at the moment though.

"What a pity."

A strangled sound escaped from Guila's throat when the tiger sin had suddenly lifted grabbed the knight by her face and lifted the ravenette clear off the ground. "Try again though, really. Put more effort into it." Aelfryth asked of the knight. " **I want you to do it"** her eyes glowed as her desire was hissed lowly.

Guila was helpless to stop her arm from rising between them though it was clear she was trying to fight off the magical hold over her form from the way her arm shook with exertion. Within seconds though, an explosion went off between them at point blank range.

"Again."

…..

"Again."

…..

"Again."

With each explosion that went off, the sin's clothes continued to get tattered and ruined but the wounds on her body healed with no problem. Having no healing factor of her own, Guila didn't have such a luxury.

"Your magic is unique, "I'll give you that." Aelfryth acknowledged, " but your still no match for me - let alone any of the other sins when they truly try. You have a long way to go Holy Knight Guila Come find me when you get much stronger." the woman stated and clenched her hand around the woman's face - a sickening crack resonating through the air.

Elizabeth gasped and covered her mouth as if she were going to be sick and expected to see Guila drop dead when Alfie released her. But to the group's surprise, she just completely disappeared before she hit the ground. "I can't feel Guila's presence anymore." Diane said a bit unsurely. "That's because she was only here in spirit." Alfie answered, turning towards the others.

"She put herself into a near death state to get here...and it's how I was going to get here too instead of sharing memories with the dead before you all decided to tag along." she explained and took a deep, calming breath. "Now let's go find Ban and King." the pinkette grinned cheerfully with a wink and headed back towards where she could feel their magical energies clashing.

Aelfryth would be lying if she said it was easy to ignore the desire to not grab Meliodas as she passed him and break his skull as she did to Guila. "I don't know about you guys, but Alfie never fails to scare me out of my giblets." Hawk commented shakily, trotting after the pinkette with his companions. "No question about it." Meliodas agreed quietly.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"This is getting pretty old King." Ban complained as he dodged out of the way of another attack, coughing up blood when he was impaled by one of the fairy's many knives from behind that he didn't see coming.

"I agree! Let's hurry it up, I want a drink!"

The fox smirked at the call while his opponent scowled. When Ban noticed their new audience watching but keeping their distance, he figured the holy knight that had arrived with King had been taken care of. "You don't even know the whole story, why are you set on killing me or whatever when you're missing details?" the man asked. "Be quiet." King glared, waving two fingers in the air and drawing a symbol - the knife running through Ban's back suddenly turned into King's beloved Chastifold in its spear form.

"You can't talk your way out of this one. As I said before, I know all that there is to know about that day." the grizzly said resolutely. "Spirit Spear Chastiefold: third configuration- fossilization!" King cried.

"Huh?"

"Oh boy." Alfie frowned, watching as Ban began to turn to stone before them. "He's becoming a statue!" Hawk gaped. "You can fix that with your magical ability, can't you lady Alfie?!" Elizabeth looked over at the pinkette frantically though the woman remained silent. "Are you watching Elaine? This is all for you." King smiled, looking up longingly.

"Who the heck is Elaine?" Meliodas wondered himself with a frown. "If you have any last minute confessions then I'll hear them." King could be heard saying as the fossilization neared its completion. "If he doesn't think he did anything wrong, then what is there to confess to?" Alfie murmured to herself and just as she suggested, Ban remained silent. The fox merely offered up a smirk to the fairy as the final bits of stone finished enveloping him. "No words of regret?" King noted and then scoffed,

"That's just like you. At least Elaine can rest easy now after everything that happened." he murmured and looked to the one person who may be able to break Ban out of his eternal prison.

Her pink hair pooled around her legs from her sitting position on the ground, but when she rose her hair danced around her waist. Tensing, King held out a hand and Chastiefold flew into his grasp. "Don't you dare make a move towards him." King barked knowingly. " He deserves to suffer for all eternity!" he shouted. "Fine." Alfie narrowed her eyes slightly but made no move towards Ban or King as demanded of her.

Instead, her eyes slid over to a cluster of yellow lights that manifested out of thin air. Noticing her diverted attention, King too looked back at Ban and gaped slightly. "No...no…. What are you doing?!" the fairy screamed, watching as the lights danced across Ban's frame momentarily before retreating once more. Where the lights touched, did cracks appear and spread all over the fossilized Ban until the petrification broke completely.

"You did it, lady Alfie! Sir Ban is free again!" Elizabeth cheered but the woman in question remained neutral at the sight. After all… she hadn't done anything. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?! " King yelled hysterically, flying towards the sin at an incredible speed, Chastiefold right beside him. "The audacity of some people." Aelfryth murmured with a glare, hand grasping a sword at her hip in preparation to strike the fairy down as he grew closer and closer.

"King."

Wide brown eyes stared into blue eyes in disbelief as a feminine voice drew the fairy to a halt, moments before reaching Alfie. "Elaine?" King muttered softly and turned around to see the floating lights still there next to Ban. "Is that you, Elaine?" King asked louder and flew towards the lights, forgetting his anger towards Ban and Alfie alike. Ban rubbed the back of his head with an unreadable expression on his face and walked away from the very thing that had saved him, passing by King without a glance.

"I don't know about you guys, but I've had my fill of this place." the fox said upon arrival. " I second that!" Hawk agreed eagerly. "But what about sir King?" Elizabeth asked with a worried glance thrown in the fairy's direction. "Never you mind him, he has some business to settle here." Ban patted her head comfortingly. "Al'" he then whined somewhat. "I wanna go back to the tavern." the crimsion eyed man looked to his friend.

"You and me both." the pinkette sighed heavily and no later had she said this, did the group of six begin to glow an errie yellow light. " Looks like the Necropolis has just about had it with us" Alfie noted.

"Sweeet~"

Their re-entrance into the world of the living was one filled with releif. There had been too much action in the city of the dead for any of them. Hawk's scream of fright set off an alarm in everyone and had them looking to see what had set the pig off. "It's her! Guila's back!" he trembled but the knight showed no reaction to the declaration. "Oh." Alfie said in realization after a moment.

"It's okay Hawk. Guila's still trying to recover, virtually unconscious." she explained to the motionless knight who was frozen in place with her hand striking her heart. "I say we kill her while we got the chance." Ban said aloofly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Don't be barbaric." Alfie scolded. "We ought to leave her be and head out before she wakes up." the pinkette suggested, eyeing the rapier at her hip.

After a moment of thought, Alfie reached forward and claimed the blade as her own to add to her collection. "Now we can head out." the woman grinned to herself and sauntered away. "And they say I'm a thief." Ban hummed in amusement as he followed after. "But what about sir King?" Elizabeth fretted. "He'll catch up." Ban waved off the concern.

"We're bringing someone who sided with a holy knight that attacked us and who tried to kill you?" Hawk asked dubiously. "King only sided with what's-her-face to get to me, I asked him about it earlier during the fight. He never swore allegiance to them, and as for what happened between us - it's in the past now." Ban declared with a wave of his hand.

"But it literally happened less than 5 minutes ago."

"Past is past."

With this declaration, Alfie stopped in her tracks and held out her arms expectantly in general. "What?" Ban quirked a brow at her strange actions "Carry me, my feet are tired." Alfie requested, causing a grin to spread across the towering male's face. Just as Ban reached for the woman, Diane had flicked him away and scooped the woman into her hands herself. The force of the flick had effectively sent the fox flying into a near by wall of one of the many abandoned homes.

"Keep your hands off of her." Diane grumbled at the theif, as she brought Alfie up to her shoulder. "Do you want to be carried too Elizabeth?" Meliodas asked with a devious smirk and made grasping motions with his hands but the blonde had been punched into the ground by the giant a second later. "That goes for you too, captain!" Diane yelled, grabbing Elizabeth less gently than she did with Alfie and set the princess on her other shoulder and stomped off.

"My giant in shining armor." Alfie blinked lovingly up at Diane with a playful smirk. "And don't you forget it." the giant sniffed as Elizabeth silently looked back at where the two abused men had remained with a bit of concern though she remained silent on the matter.

"If sir King is coming with us, shouldn't we wait for him to return from the Necropolis?" Elizabeth asked. "Naaaahh, King can catch up. I mean it's not like we're the most discreet things traveling around the country." Alfie said carefree. "I suppose that's true." The princess murmured to herself as the giant continued on her way back to the tavern, leaving the men of the group to catch up on their own.

True to the tiger's word, they didn't stay in place at all the wait for King. Meliodas had gotten Momma Hawk up and moving immediately in order to put as much distance between them and Guila as much as possible before she woke up and broke free of her bonds that the blonde had taken it upon himself to wrap her in. Around sunset is when their traveling home finally stopped and near a pond at that. Once buried underground, the smaller occupants of the Boar Hat stepped out into the setting sun and began to make camp.

"Lady Alfie." Elizabeth called once the group had settled outside, food and ale going around at a healthy rate. " Hm?" The woman herself hummed in question. " I was just wondering…" the princess trailed off, " Diane told me back when you and sir Meliodas fought that you had a really powerful magical ability that let's you manipulate just about anything so long as you have the will to do so." she recalled.

"Ah-huh, what about it?" came the pink haired woman's response. "Well, if that's true - can't you just …. Just...will the holy knights to stop their plans for the kingdom and get them to stop hunting you all?" the princess questioned. The blue eyed sin let out a carefree laugh and pinched Elizabeth's cheek playfully. "Well aren't you cute and just pure of heart?" Alfie cooed before releasing the princess.

"I'm no goddess doll face, or magic genie." she laughed, "There's limitation to my magic just like everyone else has. On top of that there is a good portion of my magic that's been… in hiding so to speak." Alfie wiggled her jaw back and forth absently. "In hiding?" Elizabeth echoed, puzzled. "Once upon a time, I got into a fight with this really strong guy." Aelfryth began, paying no mind to how everyone's attention was on her at the moment.

"We fought for what seemed like forever - we kicked the crap out of each other but ultimately I won. That victory wasn't without its' downsides though, he did a number on me and I was hurt for a long time. After I healed, the extent of my magic was never the same. I know it's there, it's just…..hiding." Alfie finished lamely. "Well at least you killed the dumbass who fought you." Ban slurred.

His cheeks were rosy from the ale he had been drinking, Meliodas was deathly quiet at his side as he held his own mug of ale in hand. "Ohhhh~ he's not dead." Alfie smiled despite the statement, "He's still wandering around the place - I seen him not too long ago actually." she swirled her ale around absently.

"Someone lived through your revenge?"

The group collectively started at the new voice joining the conversation and turned to see King floating nearby with a slight blush on his cheeks at the sudden attention. "Heeyy, there he is~" Ban grinned wolfishly, his proclamation being followed by other greetings thrown the fairy's way by the sins.

"Come sit and drink with us King, this little party is for you after all!" Diane chirped excitedly and forcibly grabbed the small knight around his middle and set him down soundly on the ground. Frazzled, King blinked twice before he suddenly found himself with a beer in one hand and a grilled fish in his mouth that had been roasted over the fire.

Recovering from the abruptness of what had just happened in the span of a short few seconds - King removed the fish from his mouth and took to floating again, Chastiefold settled under his rear in the air.

"Thanks Diane...You never answered my question, chief." King pressed. Fighting off a sigh, Al merely shrugged. "Eh, what can I say? It would make him the only one to survive. Have no fear though, I won't rest until he's dead and in the ground for good….and that, doll face, is my sin." Alfie finished, looking to the princess pointedly.

"Speaking of dead things, does this mean you two are good now?" Hawk looked to Ban and King, referring to their previous beef in the Necropolis. "Is that a talking pig?" King uttered to himself in bewilderment. " I was literally in the Necropolis with you!" Hawk shouted enraged. "Take it easy master~" Ban grinned lazily, "not everyone can be aware of your awesomeness from the get go." he then chugged his cup's contents.

"Master?" King repeated even more confused than before. "King meet Hawk. Hawk meet King. Hawk is our captain of the order of scraps disposal." Alfie explained for the fairy. "I see.." King said thoughtfully and then looked to the plump pig, "And to answer your question, yes. Ban and I are good...as good as we can be anyways." King nodded and then yelped when he had suddenly been snatched out of the air and into Ban's muscled chest much to the fairy's horror.

"Did you guys hear that? He forgives me! DRINKS ALL AROUD!" Ban laughed heartily, losing his balance and falling onto his back- taking King with him as he did so. "Get off me you big brute!" King flailed, somehow managing to keep his ale from spilling atop either one of them. Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh at the sight, but she did try and muffle her chortles but it didn't do much.

Standing to her feet at the same time King had managed to free himself from Ban, the brown haired boy had jumped a bit when Alfie rested a hand on his shoulder and to his surprise, he suddenly stopped floating - Chastiefold too. Landing on the ground with a jolt, King looked up into eyes that were glowing blue and paled. "Hehe~, uh chief?" he asked nervously through strained laughter.

"You wouldn't happen to take what happened earlier personally would you?" King squeaked, shivering when she grinned. "I'd take that as a yes." Ban chuckled, having pushed himself back into a sitting position and awaited eagerly for the scene to play out in front of him.

"I am entitled to retaliation King." Alfie sang, head locking the small fairy momentarily as she delivered a rapid barrage of punches to his head before launching King into the body of water nearby. The group burst into laughter at the fate of the poor fairy, not even feeling sorry for the male as he resurfaced a sputtering mess.

Swimming to shore King shook himself admittedly like a dog and began the process of attempting to wring out the water from his clothes. "Would you like me to fetch you some new clothes, sir King?" Elizabeth asked him. "No, that's alright. I suppose they could of used a wash anyways." King frowned and then looked to the green haired princess. "Who are you by the way?" he wondered. "That there is the third princess of Liones - Elizabeth." Hawk commented, munching on some food himself.

"Otherwise known as doll face." Alfie piped in before returning her attention to Diane who was trying to shove a massive fish down Meliodas' throat. "Cut it out Diane - you know that's way too big!" the woman scolded the giant who merely pouted in return but ceased her efforts.

"Thank you." Meliodas sighed deeply in relief but yelped when he received a harsh blow to the side of his head. Without looking up, the blonde frowned into his mug - feeling the glare burning into his skin as the pinkette moved past him to pull more barrels of ale from the tavern.

She needed to get drunk.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"There's no way. I'm not sleeping here!" King hissed at Hawk, Ban's snoring form mere feet away. "Well we have no where else to put you! Heck Alfie had to resort to sleeping in the attic!" Hawk snorted pointedly, unwaivering under the fairy's glare as they argued over sleeping arangements. "Then I'll stay outside with Diane." King sniffed but admitted squealed when he was suddenly grabbed and thrown onto the bed from behind.

Hawk blinked up in surprise at a hardly awake Ban, who had been the one responsible of such actions. "Big baby." the fox grumbled, stumbling around before managing to make his way out of the room. It took the towering man a while - and a lot of cursing too as he stumbled into the walls repeatedly until he finally managed to make his way into the hallway that lead to the attic.

Reaching up -and missing quite a few times- Ban managed to grab the dangling cord from the ceiling and gave a pull, yawning as he did so. Stairs dropped down from the ceiling flawlessly, allowing Ban to climb up into the desired resting location. Taking one stair at a time, the fox sin completed the task of entering the attic but didn't bother to pull the stairs back up - that was far too advanced for his state.

Maneuvering his way through the attic was much easier surprisingly since it was so empty and a bit more spacious than the hallways down below. Ban didn't even know he had found the bed until he tripped and landed on top of it soundly. "This feels nice~" he murmured sleepily and still drunk, appreciating the softness of the mattress. "What the hell are you doing?" Alfie asked quietly.

Unlike the fox, the woman had still been awake and alert at that before he had even made his way up here. "Sleeping," Ban mumbled before he wiggled his way towards the top of the bed so his head could rest on a pillow, falling into light snores.

Shaking her head at the sin, Alfie dropped it and turned to Meliodas who had been up there with her the whole time. "Now we definitely have nothing to talk about. Go to sleep." she hissed quietly.

"Alfie-" Meliodas tried but the pinkette wasn't having it. "Alfie nothing, I told you before what needed to happen. Gowther needs to be found and found now, that's all there is to say on the matter" she insisted, the blonde was ruining her buzz with this talk on trying to find a way to smooth things over that didn't end with his death. "Alright fine, I'll drop it." he frowned, making his way towards the stairs.

"Just to let you know, we're going to Vaizel next." Meliodas mentioned. "What for?" Alfie asked, admittedly curious. "It's where Diane's Giddeon is. and Vaizel is surrounded by woods- I know you didn't get to really look around this last town for Gowther because of me but you can go ahead and look around Vaizel - I'll leave you to it." Meliodas stated.

"..."

"Aelfryth." Meliodas sighed sadly, "We have nothing else left to go on. We need our sacred treasures anyways." he reasoned and after a moment, was met with a nod from the woman before she moved off for her bed silently. Hesitating as if he were going to say more, Meliodas thought it over before ultimately sighing and making his way down the retractable stairs.

It took a few moments for Alfie to slip into her night clothes but once she did, the woman sank into her bed with a deep sigh. The comfort of the mattress nearly lulled her to sleep just by being atop of it.

"Snuggle up buttercup~" the fox moaned near her ear and pulled her into his chest, meeting little resistance from the woman. "I don't know what your deal is with the captain but I'll kill him if he ever did anything to you to make you two like this~" Ban mumbled incoherently before drifting off into oblivion once more.

"Get in line bud." Alfie muttered, a blush on her cheeks from being pulled into such an intimate position with the man but allowed herself to relax and fall into a deep sleep safely cocooned by Ban's frame.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

A/N: Ta-Da! See it was sooner than last time...even if much didn't happen (Insert Sweat Drop here). Thanks for reviews!


	6. Chapter 6

"No, No, no, no, no! I won't do it! I refuse!"

Alfie stared up at a disgruntled Diane with a frown. Watery amethyst eyes glared down on defiance at the pink haired woman, plump lips quivering dangerously. " Diane-"

"Noooo~!" The giant cried again with a shake of her head. "Why do I gotta stay behind and watch the bar?!" She exclaimed. "Meliodas already told you why. Giant's are banned in the village." Alfie said calmly. "I can stay behind with you Diane." King offered but was ignored.

"Then make my medicine!" Diane shouted at the blue eyed woman, slamming her fists down on either side of the pinkette. Aelfryth stayed rooted to the ground and was unfazed but the others had gone flying from the impact of the giant's strength.

"I had nothing to do with your medicine Diane. That was all Merlin and she never got around to telling me how to replicate it." Alfie said as the others fell back to the ground around them like lifeless fish. "Then _**make**_ me small!" Diane cried, snatching up her chief forcefully.

"Di...ane" Alfie wheezed pathetically, air rushing out her lungs. "Why am I always the one to get left behind?" This particular heart broken whimper had cause the sins to tense in place. "Even before we were exiled there was so much I got left out on. Am I that much of a burden?" The giant whispered with a heavily furrowed brow, her chin jerking to the side to hide the side of her face that had a tear rolling down her cheek.

"D-Diane! How could you say that?!" King said scandalized. "Awe come on now Dee, don't go saying stuff like that~" even Ban sported a frown after he picked himself up. "Yeah, no way is what you said true." Meliodas chimed in.

"That's enough, Diane."

Aelfryth was the only one not moved enough to dismiss the giant's claim. "Fine... _fine!"_ The blue eyes woman then huffed exasperated. "Just give me a second to think." The pinkette murmured, looking about their surroundings and ignored the one-eighty Diane's emotions did. If Alfie wasn't mistaken, what the giant needed was in this very forest they stopped in.

" Somewhere around here there should be the very creature you need." The tiger sin said, Diane setting her down wordlessly. "It's called the Chicken Matango. It looks like a giant purple mushroom with a red top. If you startle it, it'll spray out a powder that'll shrink you to human size for a handful of hours. If your that determined to be able to shrink down into human size every now and again, you would be smart to bottle its powder" Alfie informed.

"That sounds wonderful! I can help you look, Lady Diane." Elizabeth offered. "You will?" the giant quirked a brow and beamed brightly when the princess nodded. "Yeay! Thanks a bunch Elizabeth. Let's get started right away!" the giant stated excitedly, moving off with a pep to her step. "Wait for me, Diane!" Elizabeth ran after the giant disappearing deeper into the woods. Staring at the direction where the duo went, Alfie was silent momentarily before blinking and snapping herself out of her own daze.

"Well she cheered up rather quick" Ban noted dully shortly before a yawn escaped from his lips. "Shouldn't we get going now that Diane's done throwing her fit?" the fox then asked. "It wasn't a fit - she was genuinley upset!" King corrected heatedly though he was ignored by the undead man, Ban having started walking towards Vaizel - causing the others to follow.

The search for Gowther had already been taken care of a day before and much to her pleasure, Alfie had been sensed a trickle of his magical trail out in the forest. After tracking it though, she found that it only led towards Vaizel.

The trek into the small village was rather painless, so painless that Alfie split off from the larger group to go scour for something that would keep her entertained. Since there were so many vendor stalls, the pinkette supposed that it wouldn't be too hard to find something that would amuse her a little later. After passing down a particular street, the pinkette caught onto the missing sins' magical trail once again even if faint.

"I'm on your scent Gowther" Alfie said to herself with a smirk, "You can't hide from me for long." the woman had then picked up the pace, moving around the civilians wandering around from stall to stall.

Turning down another street, the goat sin's scent had ultimatelyy led her to an avenue of scholarly items and about midway down did she sense Gowther's magical presence most. With her hands held behind her back, Alfie stalked forward with a rather pleased expression on her face. That expression faltered however when she got a good look at the male carrying the magical presence.

Instead of seeing a pink head of hair, she saw black and a slightly bulkier form than what Gowther was. That couldn't possibly be Gowther. Gowther was lithe and had dark rose pink hair. If that was true then why did this man feel like her fellow sin? Was he disguising himself? Gowther, Merlin, King and Aelfryth were the most handy when it came to magic so it wouldn't surprise Alfie if the goat sin had disguised himself after all.

Walking up to the side of the man carrying Gowther's magical presence, she frowned heavily and leaned slightly into his peripheal vision in order to catch his attention. "You aren't Gowther, why do you feel like him?" Alfie frowned once his attention was successfully caught. "Who? Why do I what now?" the man looked confused. Alfie narrowed her eyes on the man in annoyance, scanning him up and down scrutinizingly.

And that's when she found it.

Gowther's boots. The man was wearing Gowther's grey slouched ankle boots. "Where did you get those?" Alfie pointed to them. "Oh!" a look of recognition filled the man's face as he too looked down at his shoes. "I ran into a nice young man not too long ago on the path to this village. He claimed he seen how my daughter had been wearing shoes too big to fit her own feet while I walked around barefoot so he gave his own to me." he explained but this only cause Alfie to frown.

Gowther wasn't compassionate like that. He didn't understand how to be compassionate. "Why would he do that?" she questioned lowly. "He claimed that he once seen a similar gesture done and wanted to know what the feeling of doing a kind gesture felt like." the man recalled dutifully and then shrugged, "Yeah he was a pretty strange lad now that I think about it but still, it was nice of him." he admitted.

"Nice indeed." Alfie said absently, thinking over what he had told her. "Where did he go after he gave you his shoes?" the pink haired woman wondered. "He came here. Not sure where but he's here, somewhere." the man replied. Taking a moment to think, Aelfryth nodded and then thanked the father before moving off.

How frustrating.

The tiger sin sighed heavily, rubbing the back of her neck theraputically. Those boots were the only trail the Alfie had to go off of and now that she knew Gowther was here and indeed hiding, it just made her job harder.

Or did it?

Pausing abruptly, Alfie turned around and rushed back up to the father. "I need you to do me a favor." she said, hardly giving him the opprtunity to process that she was now again before him. "Think of that interaction you just told me about." she requested and then very quickly placed her palm against his forehead, her fingers clenching his dark midnight locks of hair. "Wha-?" his question had trailed off as his eyes became hazy while Alfie's glowed a bright blue.

" _Oh, you don't have to - please! Keep your shoes on, I will be alright."_

" _It is of no inconvinience to me. I hear people do these acts of compassion all the time and I would like to experience it for myself. Take my shoes."_

Mother fucker.

Groaning in frustation, Alfie ripped her hand away from his head and stomped a foot childishly. Damn that Gowther! He had blocked out the image of himself in the man's memories. In all consideration it was probably to stop people from doing the very thing that she was doing now in order to protect himself. No matter how reasonable or understandable it was, Alfie was still frustrated.

Whipping around, the pinkette stomped away for the second time. Now she felt like she needed a drink. Outside of those boots, Gowther's magical trail was no where to be found, nor did she even know at the least what Gowther looked like if he was under disguise. Just her luck.

Forcing herself to take a calming breath, Alfie half heartedly scanned the goods merchants were selling out of the corner of her eye as she walked by. Some of the items she stopped for and actually bought and now carried a basket on one arm to hold her new purchases. The pink haired woman also just so happened to rip down a wanted poster for Elizabeth and stuffed it into her basket.

"Alfie! Hey Alfie!" Hawk's voice sounded, distracting the pinkette from looking over her new possessions. Looking up, the pinkette seen the pig running towards her with a barrel of ale on his back. "Look at what I thought up of so we can make some extra cash!" the pig beamed, skirting to a stop with an all too proud grin on his face. The woman couldn't help but smile and pat the pig's head.

"Good job, Hawk. Any buyers yet?" she wondered. "Yup!" he chirped and then shook his head from side to side so she could hear the jingle of the few coins in his coin purse around his neck. "Where did the others go?" she then asked lightly. "Oh, they went to go participate in the fighting festival so they could fairly win Diane's hammer. The preliminary is going on right now." Hawk explained. "Lead the way then." she said with a wave of her hand.

Following the pig, Alfie found that he led her to a rather large crowd circling a fighting arena with some short animated helmet creature refereeing the whole thing. Amongst the throng of brawling men on the platform, Alfie seen glimpses of Meliodas, Ban and King - the last of the trio spent most of the time running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

"Poor King." Alfie vocalized with a laugh. "Yeah he's been doing that for a while now, I'm surprised he hasn't been knocked out yet." Hawk said honestly. "Well King is a slippery one. I can't necessarily blame anyone struggling to catch him." Alfie continued to laugh.

Alfie was content on watching her friends half heartedly fight to stay in the ring but she soon tensed when she noticed a dirty blonde headed figure in the ring with them. "I know that guy…." she trailed off thoughtfully, rubbing her jaw in thought and then it hit her. It was a holy knight. "That's a holy knight." Alfie stated to the pig. "What?!" Hawk screached in alarm.

"Yeah, he's best friends with Gilthunder. Howzer, a wind user if I remember right. A pretty decent one too" she recalled with a frown. A certain long haired meat head soon entered the sins' vision shortly after her observation of Howzer. "That beefy dude with brown hair is a holy knight too. Princess Veronica's personal body guard, Griamore." she added on, not calming the talking animal in the least bit.

"If either of them recognizes us it's a wrap - we gotta get outta here!" Hawk squealed and attempted to haul ass away but only succeeded in running in place and kicking up dust seeing as Alfie had caught him by his tail without blinking."We need Diane's hammer." the tiger proclaimed, level headed in comparison to her companion. "Then grab it and let's go!" Hawk yelled.

"We don't need a mob coming after us because we stole it. That kind of heat is counter-productive." Alfie said factually, falling into her thoughts once more. What was either holy knight doing all the way out here? Howzer she supposed she could understand - he liked to explore. Griamore however...he never left the purple haired princess' side. Him being here could only mean that Princess Veronica wasn't far off, though what either was doing here still escaped Aelfryth.

"THE ELIMINATION ROUNDS HAVE CONCLUDED! WINNERS REPORT TO THE WAITING ROOM!"

Frowning at this sudden declaration by the referree, Alfie gave a yank in order to force Hawk to sit down. "I'll take care of it, just sell your ale - okay?" the woman instructed the pig and then moved off, steathily making her way towards the little hut that her companions were heading towards themselves. Seeing as she made sure to wait a few moments after all the contestants had entered the room, Alfie had walked in right on time to hear the referree explaining how the festival finals would work.

"Line up and draw lots to pick your opponent! Those with the same letters will be duking it out!" he explained, urging the eight bodies in the room to do as he said. "Maaannn~ I can't wait until we get into the finals so I can duke it out with whoever is good enough to make it there." Ban grinned to the short blonde as they waited their turns.

"Don't talk a big game and get knocked out before it can happen." Meliodas chuckled from his position in line before the towering man. "Not gonna happen." Ban grinned wickedly. " Do me a favor and re-think that statement." Alfie chimed in behind the duo, startling them. "Hey Al' what are you doing here?" Ban questioned after he had turned to address her. "Warning you lot." she said bluntly. "We got a couple of holy knights sniffing around. Two of them to be specific." Alfie informed.

"Huh, where?!" King suddenly popped up next to the woman with a frantic expression on his face. Meliodas and Ban also had tensed at this news being brought to light. "That long haired meat head Griamore and Gil's best friend Howzer." Alfie pointed to the duo in question who stood on the other side of the room after getting their lots.

"She's right, I recognize Howzer. He was basically Gilthunder's shadow whenever I saw them together." King confirmed her statement after taking in the sight of the dirty blonde in particular. "Man, this sucks." Ban whined with a frown, hand resting on the back of his neck. "It'll be a pain if either one of them were to recognize us." Meliodas frowned too, and then his eyes slid back of to Alfie. "What about Gowther?" he asked seriously.

"The first match is Griamore versus Matrona!"

"I caught his scent of his magical trail and followed it." Alfie began to retell her tale of struggles from earlier, none of the sins paying much attention to the announcements of matches.

"Second match is Howzer versus Taizoo!"

"I found it even before we reached Vaizel but it only led into the village which is why I came back to finish the journey with you guys." Alfie crossed her arms over her chest with a frown.

"The third match is Cain versus Old Fart!"

"When we got here, I tracked it again to some guy who had the scent all over him. I thought it was Gowther in disguise but it turns out the bastard had been experimenting with understanding emotions again and gave his shoes to some guy who didn't have any on the way here. I tried searching his head so I could figure out where he went but Gowther meddled with it - blurring out his image so he couldn't be tracked by appearance. The guy claims Gowther is somewhere here though." The tiger finished.

Ban whistled lowly, "Man, when Gowther doesn't want to be found - he really makes sure he can't be found." he said a bit impressed. "I need him to not be in hiding." Alfie growled lightly. "It's a pain in my ass...we also have another problem." she revealed. "How much worse can this possibly get?!" King asked incredulously. Wordlessly, Aelfryth pulled out Elizabeth's wanted poster and unfurled it with a jerk of her wrist.

"She's wanted?!" King's eyes just about bugged out of his head as he read the parchment paper.

"The fourth match is Meliodaf versus Baan!"

"For association with us no less." Ban noted dully, bothered by this fact. "This is all one big cluster fuck." Alfie stated bluntly, shoving the paper back into her basket. "Where Griamore is, Veronica is sure to be near by." the woman proclaimed. "If I can get to Veronica - I can get her and her meat headed body guard out of here. That'll be one holy knight off our back." she assured.

"Hey - do I know you guys?"

Speak of the devil.

The four sins turned and seen Howzer had approached and was scrutinizing them all rather thoughtfully. Without missing a heartbeat, Alfie delivered a kick to the side of Howzer's knee - causing the man to collapse onto the assulted body part in question. Opening his mouth to no doubt demand just what the hell was wrong with her, Alfie already had his head in her grasp and her eyes glowing blue - his hazing over.

"A little memory loss never hurt anyone…." she said absently. After a few moments, Alfie released her hold on the man and helped Howzer to his feet. "Ugh, wha-what happened?" he ground out, grasping at his head with one hand.

"You kind of just collapsed," Alfie said with faux concern. "Are you sure you're okay to fight that brute Taizoo?" she fretted. Howzer blushed when he seen the pretty pinkette showing so much concern, his eyes darting off to the side bashfully. "I- I'll be okay. I'm so sorry to put you all in this situation and thanks for the help." he laughed nervously. "It's no problem at all." Alfie beamed and then leaned in close to his ear.

"I'll be cheering for you, cutie~" she whispered in a sultry tone. "You'll win for me, won't you? You had some rather amazing moves and I'd love to see some of them in a one on one session after the festival if you don't mind" she cooed, rubbing his muscled chest with a free hand and then lightly bit the shell of his ear. Yelping with a cherry red face, Howzer pulled away from the devious woman and looked at her rather stunned. Adding a wink on top of it, Alfie bit her lip and held her hands behind her back as she awaited an answer - blinking up at the man through her thick dark lashes.

"S-s-sure!" Howzer's voice cracked through the stutter, leading Alfie to giggle heartily. "Good," she took steps towards him but with every step she took in advance, he retreated. "I look forward to the rest of today and well into the morning of tommorrow~" she whispered loud enough for him to hear and then headed towards the door - making sure to pause and wave goodbye to the holy knight before disappearing outside. Howzer wasn't the only one left stunned from the brazen display the pinkette had showed. Meliodas, King and Ban were stunned as well.

"What the heck was that?!"

While the men were left reeling, Aelfryth was laughing. It was much too funny to see poor Howzer's reaction. Sobering, Alfie focused her senses on tracking down the purple haired princess of Liones down. "Veerroonniiccaa~" Alfie sang, weaving through the sea of men and women with the basic hair colors.

"Where, oh where, could you be?" she looked around with a careful eye. If she couldn't find this pain in the ass royal either, Alfie was going to throw herself off a cliff. She would not be going 0 for 2 in terms of finding people today. She may just have to kill someone if she did.

After another set of minutess of scanning the crowd, Aelfryth finally spotted the tomboy royal. She was directly across from the pinkette on the other side of the ring - merging herself with the crowd rather well. "There you are." she grinned wickedly, moving off to be able to sneak up on the woman of her focus. Even when the crowd roared in the excitment of the matches starting back up - Alfie didn't falter from her task at hand.

"The first match of the finalists are about to begin! Griamore vs Matrona! A 400 pound mountain of muscle versus our mysterious caped female fighter!...By the way miss, you will have to remove the cloak just so I can be sure you aren't hiding any weapons."

Don't move. Don't you dare move. Aelfreyth would scream if Veronica decided to disappear into the crowd that was currently going crazy over the full body appearance of the woman fighter. The tiger couldn't afford to pay attention though. She had a job to do. Protect the group. Just as always, no matter what…

The fight had been going on for a few minutes and just as Alfie had snuck up on Veronica, the woman dubbed Matrona had knocked Griamore straight out of the ring - off the ledge the fighting took place on entirely in all actuality. "What a killer punch - huh?" Alfie whispered in the princess' ear, observing Griamore's falling form in the distance. Veronica tensed, a small gasp escaping her lips at the familiar voice in her ear.

"So much for that wicked Wall ability your body guard prides himself on." she taunted. Glaring at nothing in particular, Veronica began to reach for the sword on her back but pressure at the base of her spine stopped the royal from moving at all. "Aht, aht! You go doing stupid stuff like that and I'll snap your spine like a twig and carry your corpse out of here without anyone being any wiser about it." Alfie warned lowly, her hand remaining on the smaller woman's back.

Begrugingly Veronica returned her arm to her side but did so with a fierce scowl on her face. "Why don't we go check on good old Griamore, huh?" Alfie suggested and gave the woman a nudge to get her moving. "I can walk on my own." Veronica snapped at the sin, stalking forwards a moment after. "Of course, princess." Alfie smirked, following after. Taking the wooden bridge onto the grassy hill side, both women worked their way downwards to where they last seen Griamore land.

"Oh my. He's still unconscious." Alfie observed with a trill, "I would get a new body guard if I were you." she smirked, unfazed when the woman snapped a quick 'fuck you' in return of her taunt. "Griamore!" Veronica then turned her ire on the man that was supposed to be protecting her. "Griamore! GET UP!" the royal yelled with a glare.

The man's face twitched as he returned to the land of the conscious, pained groaning soon followed as the muscled man worked his way to his knees. "What-what happened?" the tan man asked, his eyes still closed which prohibited him from seeing the predicament his charge was in. "You got sloppy and let your guard down - if I would have known this would have happened then I would of just brought Gilthunder and Quinn with me." Veronica chastised, much to the man's dismay.

Alfie whistled lowly at this, "Damn, she stuck it to you there huh Griamore?" she asked rhetorically. Hearing her voice, the holy knight tensed on the spot and shot his head up. A split second had gone by before Griamore had his hand on his weapon and was ready to cleave the pink haired woman in two for holding Veronica hostage.

"DON'T!" Veronica yelled when he took a step forward at the same time Aelfryth had put increased pressure on her spine. "Princess Veronica?" Griamore said through clenched teeth. "If you come any closer you'll kill me. She'll snap my spine Griamore - look at where her hands are!" Veronica explained in a frustrated tone.

Scanning her lithe form, Griamore did notice that the tiger sin's hands were no where near any of the three swords she carried on her person. Instead they were hiding directly towards Veronica, leading the man to see that what the princess had spoken was true after all. "You wreched monster, get your hands off the princess!" Griamore yelled.

Alfie tisked a few times, "That's no way to get what you want. My, my how you knights have grown rude over the years." she simpered. "And what is it that you do want exactly?" Veronica asked with a glare. "Me?" Alfie blinked. "Well there are a lot of things I want but unfortunately you - dear Veronica and Griamore- will only be able to help me with one of them." she informed.

"As if we would-!"

"What do you want?" Veronica cut off Griamore's protest evenly. "I want to know why the two of you are sniffing around, don't think I didn't see Howzer earlier either." Alfie said plainly. "We're here for the festival of course." Veronica replied with ease but Aelfryth smirked, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Dear, sweet Veronica~" Alfie purred in the other woman's ear. "You ought to know better than to lie to a Sin." the tom boyish princess frowned, tilting her head away from the stronger woman but said nothing.

"Now, we're going to try this again. EIther you can tell me the truth this time or I can force you to tell me the truth. Or better yet I can force Griamore to tell me. It makes no difference to me." Alfie shrugged, smirking at Griamore's harsh glare he sent her way without fail.

"It's your choice, Princess." the pinkette summed up. Veronica was quiet for a few minutes, thinking over the situation before her with a rather unhappy look upon her face as she did so. "Tick tock, tick tock. I don't have all day" Alfie warned after she grew tired of waiting. "Let me also point out that I could have easily forced you to tell me what I want to know during the sweet time your taking at the moment. That alone should make you want to at least consider the possibility of spilling your guts." the tiger pointed out.

Veronica gave the ex-knight that. Aelfryth - the suspected true leader of the eight deadly sins could of easily forced the words to come out of her mouth at any moment. So why hasn't she? "Why haven't you then?" Veronica asked in return, causing Alfie's brow to furrow. Scoffing, she pushed the princess away from her form - Griamore catching the royal's stumbling form and steadying her.

"This is starting to get old, damn it." Alfie snapped as Veronica turned towards her. " Quit beating around the bush. I know you're here looking for Elizabeth" both princess and knight looked surprised at this. "If either one of you were the least bit competent then perhaps you would have found her roaming the woods not too long ago as she helped Diane look for ingredients." Al spilled to the duo.

"Now that, that's out of the way let's get back to business. Why are you here - why is Howzer here? You said it yourself, Griamore is the only knight you personally brought with you so why is Howzer in the same village as you two?" Alfie pressed heatedly. "You know why I'm here but I don't know what you're talking about with Howzer." Veronica started, "I mean it!" she exclaimed quickly when an annoyed look filled the other woman's face.

"I didn't know he was here, so I don't know what business he has here, he didn't say anything to me about leaving the castle at all." Veronica said honestly. Aelfryth scrutinized the purple haired royal and much to her displeasure - she couldn't sense a lie rolling off Veronica's tongue when she spoke. Holding the royal's gaze for a few moments more, Aelfryth clicked her tongue out of annoyance and turned on her heel without another word - walking away from the pair.

Flipping useless.

Nothing was going her way today was it?

She had to deal with Diane's hissy fit, she was lead on a wild goose hunt trying to find Gowther, and now she didn't even know the real reason holy knights were in the area outside of looking to re-claim Elizabeth.

The only thing left was for her to group up with her companions again, which is what exactly she set out to do. Working her way back up the hillside where the fighting was taking place, Alfie weaved her way through the crowd until she found Ban and King again. "Hey, there you are." Ban noticed the woman's arrival as she walked up, disregarding his own haggard appearance from duking it out with Meliodas.

"We were beginning to worry about ya." the blue haired man said, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "You find out anything?" he then asked. "Not really." Alfie sighed, "Not that that's anything new today it seems." she pouted. "Meh, don't worry too much about it." Ban waved off what she listed. "Just sit back and watch the captain and Diane beat the crap out of each other." he insisted.

"Diane is in the running?" Alfie blinked in surprise, shocked that the giant had found what she needed in the forest so quickly. "Yeah, she entered under the name of Matrona." Ban informed, pointing up to the stage where Meliodas and Diane stood- the girl's tavern uniform being torn to shreds from previous fights. "Ohhhh, so it looks like she found the creature in the woods after all." the pinkette noted.

"THE FINAL MATCH IS ABOUT TO BEGIN! MATRONA VS MELIODAF!"

"Well atleast we're getting Diane's Giddeon for sure." Alfie noted as a matter of factly, leaning against Ban soundly and wrapping her own arm around his waist. The man tightened his hold on the woman as she did this and hummed in agreement. The blue haired man tried to ignore how Alfie's fingers danced across his fox brand but it was very hard, her hands wer so soft….

"BEGIN!"

"So, how hard are we gonna go at it?" Meliodas grinned at Diane. "Let's be honest here captain, you've already won because you KO'ed my heart" Diane cooed with a wink. "That was incredibly cheesy." Alfie huffed a laugh. "Ohhh, Meliodaf~" a chorus of girls suddenly called out. Some rather riskily dressed girls with well endowed assets on display at that.

"Hurry and finish up that muscle headed girl so we can go and have some fun~" one winked seductively, her friends joining in with their own offers. "Oh my." Alfie blinked, turning back towards stage and seen one pissed off Diane and a confused Meliodas. "Do I know any of you?" the blonde scratched his head. "You are such a…. JERK, CAPTAIN!" Diane shouted, causing Meliodas to turn towards the human sized giant right in time to eat a punch that sent him deep into the stone fighting ring.

"Ouch." Alfie winced with a smirk. Ban seemed to find the whole situation rather hilarious.

"You didn't expect me to really stand by and let the finale of this thing be boring did you?" Ban purred in Alfie's ear. Aelfryth gasped and swatted the man's toned stomach with a laugh. "You are terrible!" she crowed, urging Ban to laugh along with her. "Oh but you love it." Ban smirked. "unfortunately." Alfie returned amused before returning her gaze to her two companions duking it out.

Well really it was Diane attempting to land another hit before Meliodas realized begrudgingly that he was going to have to start throwing his own unless he wanted to be pummeled again. "As entertaining as this is" Ban mused as he watched Diane and Meliodas trade and block blows from one another. " I'm not gonna lie, I would have loved to see you and the captain go against each other." Alfie winced at the harsh knee to the gut Diane delivered to Meliodas at that particular moment.

"Maybe one day you'll get to see it." Alfie answered, resisting the urge to rub her own head when Meliodas countered with his own strike against his companion. "We'd have to put a restriction on you of course though." King jumped into the conversation. "No knuckle tapping. The fight would end too soon if you did." The fairy shrugged.

"So you want me to put forth actual effort. That sound exhausting." Alfie complained but soon she, Ban and King all tensed at the same moment Melidas and Diane did on stage as the blonde had blocked one of her hits.

"Hey, what's the matter? Why did they stop?" Hawk's voice sounded as the pig walked up to his two legged companions. "Lady Alfie? Sir Ban and King?" Elizabeth's voice soon joined, eyes widening when King transformed to his actual size and approached the stage with Ban.

Unknownst to the princess and the now upset crowd of humans who had wanted the fight between the sins to continue- something was coming. Something bad.

"Hey, what the heck is going on?"

"Finish him, Matrona!"

"Don't keep us waiting in suspense!"

"WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON? ARE BOTH FIGHTERS OUT OF STEAM?" the referree himself exclaimed.

Seperating from each other, Diane and Meliodas faced the direction in which they felt the strong presence coming from just as Ban and King stepped behind them as well. Alfie had noticed that even Howzer looked rather disturbed by what was approaching which only convinced her even more that some serious shit was about to go down.

The approaching auras were weird - tainted, twisted and warped. All three of them felt like holy knights but darker... " My real identity is Meliodas of the eight deadly sins. The Dragon sin of Wrath!" Meliodas shouted out to the crowd and soon did the others follow.

"Diane - the Serpent sin of Envy!"

"King, the Grizzly sin of Sloth!"

"Ban, the Fox sin of Greed!"

"And we're taking over this town right now! You have less than a minute to get the hell out of here!" Meliodas exclaimed. "What the heck are they revealing themselves for when they know holy knights are hanging around?!" Hawk squealed. "I don't get it - what are they doing, lady Alfie?" Elizabeth cried out but instead the pinkette remained silent, her own eyes glued in the direction the auras were coming from.

"You guys look nothing like your posters!"

"Who are you trying to fool?"

"Think about how strong they all were though."

It seemed that at least one man had sense in the crowd.

"If those are really the sins…. Then doesn't that mean that the Tiger sin is with them?!" this same man asked in a panicked voice. As if on cue, Aelfryth jumped up and landed before her companions with a savage look upon her face that neither Hawk or Elizabeth had ever seen before on the rather lax woman.

Her landing had caused an aftershock to shake the air and sent a wave of fear into those outside the ring. The woman's magical aura had manifested around her, pinkish-white in color and whipped her hair around wildly which only intensified the severity of the situation everyone was now in.

"If you pathetic humans insist on defying my companions and therefore wronging them in my eyes. Then I am entitled to endulge in my sin..." Aelfryth began and then ripped her collar down to show her mark to the world. "If we can't have this town…. THEN NO ONE CAN!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, her aura exploding outwards.

The magical prowess of the woman had sent the earth quaking violently, nearby structures and shops collapsed on themselves and it was a miracle the outcrop the ring was built upon didn't as well. The actions of the revenge sin did get a desirable result however, the humans had scattered like ants running out of a flooded ant hill. The only ones who remained rooted in place were Elizabeth and Hawk who only stared in fright and disbelief at the prowess of the woman.

The others had run just in time though because, heading straight towards their location and the rest of the town was a barrage of yellowish-red magical orbs that looked rather familiar. Eyes glowing blue, Aelfryth leapt into the air and sent out a pulse of her magic. Very breifly did the color pink flash in the approaching attack orbs before disappearing again but Alfie didn't falter.

What she did wasn't a failure. Coating her hand in magic, she lashed out her arm in a sweeping motion. "Go back to where you came from." she growled lowly, her glowing eyes glaring angrily at the figures in the distance. As if skidding to a stop, the magical orbs turned around and was sent flying back towards its originator.

Falling back onto the ground next to her companions, Alfie waited with them to see what would happen next. "That magic is explosive in nature." she broke the silence between them all as she watched the creatures the knights rode in on struggled to dodge the countered attack but because Aelfryth had willed for themt to truly return to their creator - they couldn't dodge for long and had been hit with the explosions.

"And we only know one person with that kind of magical ability." Meliodas said unamused, eyed unmoving from the sky. "Told you we should of killed her while we had the chance." Ban frowned with his unhelpful comment. "Yeah, I'll give you that one." the pinkette acknowledged. "Split up," she then barked, "Evacuate the town. Diane - get Gideon. No holy knight leaves the town alive. If possible, capture one and bring it to me. I wanna see why they're giving off a warped aura."

"Yes, Cheif!" the four sins chorused in unison and then leapt in different directions in order to carry out the orders given to them. "Hawk!" Alfie then turned to the talking animal who squeaked at him being addressed. "Get Elizabeth back to the tavern. Guard her." she ordered sternly. "With my life!" Hawk saluted the pink haired woman with his floppy ear and then scooped up Elizabeth and began to haul ass away from the action despite the protests of the green haired princess on his back.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"You told me you didn't know what they were doing here!" Aelfryth glared down into Griamore's eyes with unconcealed rage. "I don't know!" if wasn't the knight that said this though, it was Veronica who Aelfryth had unashamedly given a beating to. "I don't like being lied to." Alfie snarled, drawing a sword and plunging it into the torso of Griamore. She didn't even flinch when the coughed up blood of the man splattered on her face.

"I'm not lying." Veronica insisted, blood falling into her own eye. She pathetically attempted to crawl over to help her poor knight but it wasn't doing so well considering Alfie had fractured and broken a good number of her bones when she found the purple haired princess desperately trying to track down Elizabeth.

It seemed she had taken Aelfryth's earlier statement to heart because the sin had found her heading towards the forest but put a stop to it quickly. After the capture of Veronica, it wasn't hard to track down Griamore seeing as the big lug was never far from her. The mountain of muscle had been rendered unable to move with a few well placed knuckle taps to his body.

"You are!" Aelfryth snapped and shoved another sword down into Griamore's form. Not into his gut though, right into his shoulder and gave a cruel twist - the disturbing sound of bone popping out of place rang in the air along with Griamore's scream of pain. "STOP IT!" Veronica yelled, her eyes starting to fill with tears. "He can't even fight back you monster!" she cried.

"Oh he can," Alfie smirked, "He's just too incompetent to do so. Again, I suggest a new guard, Princess." another scream ripped through the air when another sword went into his lower stomach. "I'll ask you again," Alfie then placed her hand on the second sword - Jericho's - embedded in his shoulder. "What. Are. They doing. Here." Alfie glared at Veronica.

"I don't kn- "

Veronica's answer had been cut off when Alfie abruptly pulled out the sword from Griamore's shoulder and then lopped the entire arm off. The pinkette remained stoic to the screams that arose from both people present and moved onto the next sword stuck in the man after sheathing the first sword. Gilthunder's sword was lodged in his appendix.

" What are they doing here?" she repeated, the grass around the man was pooling with blood and the only movement that came from the man were twitches to depict the pain he was in. The princess really couldn't afford to stay too loyal to the man if she wanted him to live. "What do you want from me?! I told you what you wanted." a tear now openly flowed down Veronica's cheeks. Rolling her eyes, Alfie jerked the sword to the right and then removed it completely before sheathing that one as well.

"I just cut open an organ of his. He will bleed out and die if you don't give me what I want." Alfie pressed. "D-don't c-cry,princess." Griamore suddenly coughed out blood with a pained grimace. He was turning pale at a rapid rate from the wounds inflicted. "J-just run. Get your sister...a-a-and run. I c-couldn't die happier… having served you for….as long as I have." he smiled weakly.

"Don't talk like that!" Veronica was quick to scold, "You're gonna be fine!" she promised, causing Alfie to frown. Ripping out Guila's sword from his torso, Alfie sheathed the weapon and then knelt down on her knees by his blood soaked head and grabbed his heavy skull with both her hands. "You have one last chance before I snap his neck and put him out of his misery." Aelfryth made sure to look the princess dead in the eyes as she said this.

Getting a surge of strength, Veronica unsteadily rushed towards the pinkette with intentions on tackling her away from Griamore but Alfie merely dodged with a simple lean and watched as Veronica tumbled to the ground in a heap.

"You don't want to answer my question that's fine." Aelfryth sighed in exasperation, "Then maybe you'll answer this one. Why doesn't Griamore and Howzer feel like those other holy knights? Guila specifically and who ever else she has with her." Alfie questioned.

"...Hendrickson." Veronica murmured. "Hendrickson is doing something to them. I don't know what but he is. Guila is apart of his New Generation of holy knights. He takes hand selected holy knights somewhere and they undergo some sort of transformation. From this they get at least get ten times stronger than what they used to be in a short amount of time. It's all I know." the noble finished weakly.

Well. How concerning. Leaning over, Alfie took hold of Griamore's detached arm and held it in place with one hand. Biting her other, Alfie allowed her blood to trickle over the wound - watching as the arm soon reattached its self to the holy knight.

Aelfryth then held open Griamore's mouth and allowed her blood to dribble inside as well, keeping his mouth shut when he attempted to spit it out. The woman was deep in thought as she thought over what Veronica had told her, only moving off when Griamore's wounds healed completely so she could heal Veronica as well.

Not too long after Aelfryth had finished healing the princess, a large explosion went off. Turning her head towards it, Alfie vaguely seen the blue and yellow forms of Ban and Meliodas collide before falling to the earth limply. Scowling, Alfie forgot about the princess and her guard and rushed off towards where she seen her companions fall.

It didn't take long for Aelfryth to track them down, nor did it take long to find out who had caused such injuries to her companions. "Who did a number on you two?" Alfie murmured softly, turning the duo over onto their backs. Meliodas wasn't bleeding but Ban was and for some reason his body was taking longer than usual to heal the cuts over his torso.

"Guila and Jericho, unfortunately." King's real voice sounded, causing Alfie to look over and see that the fairy was indeed in his true form with a large gash across his stomach. "They got you too?" Aelfryth quirked a brow but King snorted. "As if." he said cockily much to her amusement

"His wound would be my fault, I'm afraid." a new voice joined, gaining the tiger's attention. It was some man in rather impressive golden armor with green hair and wore an eye patch. "Who the heck is that?" Alfie quirked a brow. "His name is Helbram - someone who I thought died a long time ago." King informed with a troubled expression on his face.

"While Sir Helbram is responcible for King's wounds, I believe Jericho and I would be the ones responcible for defeat of Meliodas and Ban.I claim responcibility for Meliodas" a feminine robotic voice sounded. Alfie's eye twitched at the sound of Guila's voice.

"Guila." Aelfryth straightened from her crouched position next to her companions and looked to the stoic woman now beside Helbram with an even expression. "And I take responcibility for Ban." another familiar voice joined. Looking off to the right, the pinkette was greeted with the sight of Jericho who had undergone quite the makeover in contrast to the last time she saw the holy knight apprentice in Baste prison.

Her eyes were blank though which sent rather unwelcomed thoughts raging through the blue eyed woman's head. "This is rather troubling news then." Alfie acknowledged. "For you, yes." Jericho grinned, hand on her new sword. "On the contrary, I was going to say for you two." Alfie smirked, leaning her weight onto one foot and causing the former swords of the duo to rattle.

"It's been a little while since we've seen each other - Aelfryth." Guila spoke with her usual smile. "And I've learned much since then. I believe you once said that I would have to get through your companions in order to get to you. As you can see, that aspect has already been taken care of. So tell me," the dark haired woman shifted into a fighting stance.

"Are you prepared for a review session?" Guila smiled. "You wouldn't mind if I joined in, right?" Jericho smiled as she too moved into a fighting stance. "Whaaaatt? I didn't even do anything to you." Alfie frowned at the shorter woman. "Maybe not as much as Ban but you still contributed to my humiliation, especially when you took my sword - which I'll be taking back today." Jericho said as a matter of fact.

Sighing heavily, the pinkette looked down at the unconscious forms of Ban and Meliodas."You guys are putting me in an annoying situation…" Alfie trailed off, a sour expression then crossing her face. "How come I have more than one person coming after me while you get one? Where's Diane?" Alfie complained to King. "I have no idea, I haven't felt her presence in a while." the fairy supplied.

"Fantastic." the woman sighed. "Indeed it is!" Helbram crowed with a laugh. "It seems we'll be making quite the haul." he smirked. "You're really confident in that fact aren't you?" Alfie quirked a brow. "Indeed I am but for good reason!" Helbram exclaimed and then shoved his sword into the ground before him and then snapped his fingers.

At first nothing happened, which made Aelfryth question if Helbram had lost his mind but then it happened. A few yards behind him, did portals appear. A good ten had to have formed and from out of these portals did holy knights appear. "Well I can see why you're confident." Alfie commented dryly, eyeing the people before her. "Got any bright ideas?" King asked with a grimace.

"Just one." Alfie assured, "But it includes you taking Ban and Meliodas and hauling ass out of here while I hold the others off." King's eyes widened and he looked to his chief incredulously. " You can't be serious!" The fairy proclaim. "Deadly serious." Alfie nodded and then smiled. "Don't you go worrying about me. I always get my revenge, remember?" She nudged the grown fairy playfully.

"But-"

"Go, King. Get Meliodas and Ban out of here, back to the tavern. We're getting out of here. Get Hawk's mom up and going while you're at it." Alfie ordered evenly, a meaningful look in her eye. King hesitated for a long moment but finally nodded reluctantly, "I'll be quick so that I can help you." He vowed, lugging Meliodas over his shoulder and tossing Ban onto Chastifold's pillow form. "I'll be here." Alfie smirked and watched as the injured fairy retreat with their comrades.

"How noble of you." Helbram stated smugly. "I see that even you criminals care for each other." He pointed out. Hearing this, Alfie turned back to the army of knights and smiled slightly, "You have no idea." She murmured. "You lot have been rather persistent lately, itching to defeat us in battle and put our heads on a platter…" she trailed off.

" In my opinion, I say you're better off leaving us alone. Leaving me alone... but if you insist on fighting, then I'll give you what you want. I'm sick of giving chances to back down and live to see another day. If you want a fight, then you have one. I'll even take care not to hold back" the grins of Guila and Jericho widened at the statement and prepared themselves for the sin to attack. Helbram on the other hand frowned heavily, a sense of foreboding filling his frame.

"I want you all to realize something though," Alfie slowly brought a hand up and grabbed her own face, fingers spread wide so she could still see the duo through the gaps. " I didn't want this." The sin said softly, her eyes flickering from the pretty blue to pitch black with no pupils at all, striking fear into the holy knights.

Her pink hair slowly began to turn black, from the ends of her locks and moving up to her roots. "Wh-what is she doing?" Jericho stuttered uneasily, stuck between launching herself forward or retreating. The wind, blowing around her newly colored locks only made the sin of revenge seem even more ominous than she already was. "I don't know. She didn't take on this form when we last saw each other." Guila answered, equally as disturbed as her companion.

"You'll be thanking me when I set you all free." Alfie said, her voice taking on an absent and echoing tone. "Shadow cold and dark~" the tiger sin sang hauntingly. "Make the final plea~ Take the sands of time and set the spirit free~" beneath her feet did the grass behind to decay, crumbling into grey clumps of nothing. The sky darkened as well in an unnatural way, the dying vegetation beneath them all spread towards her opponents at a rapid rate.

"~Wither and decay. End this destiny.~" holy knights began collapsing one by one, gasping for air as their strength suddenly left them. Guila, Jericho and Helbram were not apart of the exception. "Wh-what the….hell." Jericho gasped heavily, trying desperately to fill her lungs.

"M-my strength is...leaving me…" Helbram said in disbelief, arms quaking with effort to hold him up off the dead ground. "~ Break these earthly chains and set the spirit free. The spirit free….~ the final line of the song rang out sweetly despite its negative effects it caused. With this last line sung, holy knights started dropping dead like flies left and right Having had all their energy sapped from them.

The army that had been brought to take in five of the eight deadly sins were withering away to nothing. "~Shadow cold and dark~" Guila gaped when the sin began to sing again, body trembling.

"~Make the final plea. Take the sands of time and set the spirit free~" Helbram clenched his teeth and attempted to push himself onto his feet but was unsuccessful. "I n-need more….strength." he said to himself. "~Wither and decay. End this destiny.~" whatever progress he had made to stand up was quickly ruined, Helbram had collapsed again. "~Break these earthly chains and set the spirit free. The spirit free….~"

Little did any of them know, there had been one soul who remained unaffected by the life-sucking song and its singer. Elizabeth couldn't believe what she was seeing. "I-is that really, lady Alfie?" she asked herself in disbelief.

Much to Hawk's chagrin, she had locked the pig inside the tavern after waiting for as long as she could and booked it back to Vaizel to help her new friends in anyway she could. The princess hadn't expected to stumble across the sight she did when she first heard the singing begin and the adverse affects it had on the town. It was like the town outside of the Necropolis all over but worse.

Nothing was alive or standing any more.

It was a miracle that the town residents had been evacuated before Aelfryth engaged in combat. "~Shadow cold and dark~ Make the final plea. Take the sands of time and set the spirit free~ Wither and decay ~ End this destiny, break these earthly chains and set the spirit free. The spirit free….~" the song was dark and morbid, and she was once again in awe of Alfie's powers. She's rendered an army of holy knights completely useless with a solitary song….did she even have a weakness?

Shaking her head, Elizabeth decided that now was not the time to be thinking about that. She needed to get Alfie so they could leave. "Lady Alfie!" Elizabeth cried out and began running towards her friend but had then been tackled abruptly before she got very far. Shaking her head, Elizabeth blinked and gaped at the sight of a weak looking Griamore on the ground with her.

"Big sister?" Elizabeth breathed out in disbelief. "Ellie." Veronica grimaced more than smiled back. "I knew...I would find….you here." she panted out with whatever little strength she had left. "Veronica...what are you doing here?!" Elizabeth rushed over and settled next to her in concern. "I'm here...to take you home of course. To get you away from these monsters." Veronica explained weakly.

"Monsters….the sins aren't monsters." Elizabeth shook her head passionately, "They're my friends who only want to help people!" the young princess cried. Veronica scoffed, "Help? Does any of this look like your friend is helping anyone?" she bit rhetorically. Elizabeth winced, knowing her sister was correct in that sense.

It did look rather bad to anyone but…." Wait. The song." Elizabeth's eyes widened in realization. "Wh-what?" Veronica asked through clenched teeth. "The song stopped." Elizabeth whispered and instinctively turned around to face where she last seen Aelfryth but ended up flinching backwards with a small scream.

Aelfryth was standing right there. Black soulless eyes baring down on the two nobles as inky black locks of hair weaved back and forth as if it had a mind of its own.

"L-lady Alfie?" Elizabeth squeaked, her voice tremoring against Elizabeth's will. The sin remained silent for a long moment, she merely stood there. Seeing this, Elizabeth cautiously made to get up but stopped when Aelfryth's mouth opened and words escaped past her lips that had Elizabeth's eyes widening in fright.

"~Shadow cold and dark~ Make the final plea. Take the sands of time and set the spirit free…~"


End file.
